Rendition

Rendition: informally/covertly transferring or deporting a person from one jurisdiction to another with less regulation for their humane treatment. Rendition exists outside of the usual standard legal processes.

Doncaster artist Fiona Cahill is a single mother, carer and artist, calling for an apology for the deportation of thousands of British citizens as infants because they were born to unmarried mothers. From the 1920’s to the early 70’s around 9,000 women, sometimes with their babies, who were born here, were deported to Ireland; despite the fact they had legal right to stay. They were officially labelled PFI’s which meant ‘Pregnant From Ireland'. Irish and African Caribbean children up to the age of 6 were also deported without their mothers. Many were the infants of women invited to Britain to work for the NHS. My grandmother, Philomena and mum Maria never saw each other again. Mum never knew she was born in England until she was 43. Philomena who tried to get her back, had sadly passed on, after decades of inaction from Irish authorities. She had kept a photograph of them together.

Mum's expression of finding her mothers love in nature speaks to the energy of a constantly regenerating life force with no beginning and no end. Paper documents became both treasured and traumatic items in our lives. Through enmeshment in the paper making for this show, I aim to interrupt the harms of separation and extraction they suffered, that are seen in the colonised experience and in the commodification of the natural world: Baby shoes became a visual representation of our communities collective grief and a sigil against future harms back when we got Tuam to go viral. At that time I created a washing line protest outside the Irish Embassy in London using baby grows.

Our success led to the commission of investigation and finally access to records for Irish  adoptees who previously were not even allowed their own birth certificates. 796 babies were found buried in a sewer at Tuam, a county ran mother and baby institution which was previously a British workhouse during colonial times after the introduction of the poor laws.

How grief and trauma fuel uncompromising survival, and social justice is less often seen. The space provides opportunities to record oral history and to take action. ‘Rendition’ will be touring community spaces and galleries throughout the UK and Ireland before landing at the planned site of conscience at the former Magdalene laundry on Sean McDermott street in Dublin.

The British State, unlike Ireland, Australia and many other countries has yet to apologise for the historic treatment of unmarried mothers.

WATCH

Rendition will appear at Artbomb 60 Hallgate Doncaster DN13PB from 10th July to 9th August 2025.

Contact Fiona: tcup@ymail.com