It's time that dissenting voices were listened to

A small exhibition in Dublin this week tells a big story that we need to hear. At the core of the exhibition is a collection of women’s handbags. Old, faded handbags, and their mundane contents: house keys; glasses; rosary beads; letters.

The handbags belonged to women committed to St Brendan’s Hospital in Grangegorman, Dublin, formerly the Richmond Lunatic Asylum. On admission to the hospital, their personal effects were taken from them, labelled, and ...