A 10 day public art intervention by artist Sinead McCann

Health Inside is a 10 day public art intervention about the Irish prison system and prisoners’ health in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by artist Sinead McCann.

Across eight bus shelters and two large scale billboards in close proximity to Mountjoy prison Dublin. The artwork reflects on prison conditions, the mental health of men and women in prison and the social problems that imprisonment can cause.  

Health Inside makes aspects of historical prison experience more visible to the passer-by prompting a consideration of why certain prison practices have endured. 

The eight posters displayed over ten sites are constructed using material from archival photographic . These include a child convict in Mountjoy Convict Prison (1857), the interior of a prison showing suicide-prevention nettings (1918), the interior of Dundrum Mental Hospital Dublin (1971), and street scenes from Dublin north inner city (1974 & 1978). These photographs are woven together with quotes from Irish historical sources; the 1867 Prison Inspectors Report, Correspondence to the General Prison Boards Chairman, 1885, the Prisoners Rights Organisation Report 1978, and The Jail Journal (1973-76).  Combined they offer the public a series of thought provoking posters on healthcare in Irish prison during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The printed public display of these posters do not have any identifying reference to the artist, collaborators or their respective institution in order to side step and subvert the typical promotional use of these spaces.

A collaboration with Associate Professor Catherine Cox and Dr Oisin Wall (University College Dublin) as part of the Wellcome Trust Award for Prisoners, Medical Care and 
Entitlement to Health in England and Ireland, 1850-2000.

Dr Sinead McCann

I am committed to making distinctive and innovative artworks, which add an artistic contribution to public debate on important issues in modern life. I work in a multi-disciplinary way across the mediums of performance, video, sound, installation and sculpture, often in a context, site or community way. I lead and develop collaborative multi stakeholder creative projects with and between the community, education and arts sectors. These creative works are often co-authored with members of the respective collaborating communities. I often collaborate with a broad range of creative professionals to executive my creative work. I develop and exhibit my work nationally and internationally in a broad range of contexts. I am supported, commissioned and funded by leading organisations in the arts, education and community sector to make and produce creative works. My recent work includes;

An Agreement of Silence (2021), a video artwork exploring the confinement, exploitation and abuse of women in the former Magdalene Laundries in Ireland.

The Trial (2017-2019), a four channel video installation unearthing healthcare and human rights stories from within the Irish prison system.

Trigger for Change (2022), a radio documentary about access to employment for people with a criminal record.

Sound On! (2020-21) a sound art project exploring human rights and happiness within the disability community. I completed my practice based PhD Fine Art Sculpture (2015) at the National College of Art and Design Dublin; Does it fail if it is only Art? The significance of using live performance art to make visible subjective experiences of women parenting alone within the conditions of neo-liberal bio power governance in Ireland. Since 2008, I have worked in TU Dublin developing community engaged projects in the curriculum across disciplines. I served on the board of directors of Common Ground 2013-2014