Government inquiry revealed a pattern of neglect, high child mortality rates and lack of burial records among mother and baby homes once run by Ireland's religious orders. Mothers recount the shame and secrecy attached to pregnancy outside marriage and their long struggle to be reunited with the children that many claim were illegally adopted, while adoptees reveal how they were thwarted from accessing birth records.
Since the beginning of her career, Sinéad O’Connor has used her powerful voice to challenge the narratives she was surrounded by while growing up in predominantly Roman Catholic Ireland. Despite her agency, depth and perspective, O’Connor’s unflinching refusal to conform means that she has often been patronized and unfairly dismissed as an attention-seeking pop star.
On January 30, 1972, the British Army shot dead 13 unarmed civilians on a civil rights march in Derry, Northern Ireland. At the subsequent Tribunal of Inquiry, Lord Chief Justice Widgery exonerated the soldiers and blighted the reputation of those who were killed and wounded. In 1998 a new Tribunal of Inquiry was announced into the day that has become known as "Bloody Sunday". This documentary follows the course of the Inquiry from the point of view of the families of the victims, as they travelled between Derry and London over a five year period.
1980s Derry: Goretti Friel, one of a spirited group of teenage friends, meets Ciarán at her Irish language class, and romance blossoms. When he is arrested and imprisoned by the British army, Goretti is dismayed to find herself pregnant. Left to deal with the crisis alone, she is tormented by the conflicts of her growing belly and the influence of a Catholic upbringing.