New exhibition in Cork shares personal stories and memories of different diseases

A new exhibition in Cork showcases personal stories and memories of infectious disease in Ireland.

The exhibition, Catching Stories, which will run in University College Cork’s Boole Library until July 16, has collected memories and experiences of a range of diseases such as polio, tuberculosis and measles from 20th and 21st century Ireland.

The project, which is funded by the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Discover programme, brings those recollections together with biomedical commentary in an online resource, www.catchingstories.org, to explore how the experience of these diseases and related public health measures have affected Irish society.

Dr Clíona O’Carroll, from the Cork Folklore Project and Department of Folklore and Ethnology, UCC, was project lead on Catching Stories.

“Listening to people’s experiences, and contextualising them with an account of the history of the diseases and of public health efforts to combat them, allows the two sides to inform each other,” she said.

“The stories and memories bring home to us the devastating impact that diseases, now made rare by vaccination, had on families and communities.”

Dr O’Carroll added that it had been equally important to learn about the tensions between everyday life and official initiatives, and about the trauma, stigma, and loss that often accompanied such experiences.

“It is important to acknowledge how listening to communities can inform our understanding of public health developments.

“We are delighted that Science Foundation Ireland recognised this in funding the overall project and that APC Microbiome Ireland and the Boole Library helped us to bring this material out into the world physically by supporting the exhibition,” she said.

“The impact of the project will live on for years, as this valuable testimony will be safeguarded in the archives of the Cork Folklore Project.”

Dr Ruth Freeman, director of science for society, SFI, said SFI had been delighted to support Catching Stories’ innovative use of oral history to help more people understand the impact of serious public health issues.

“The project is seeking new ways to inspire and grow public awareness of the impact of research on society and how developments in science contribute to everyday life, while also enhancing understanding of the lived experience of infectious disease,” Dr Freeman said.

Dr Elizabeth Brint, of UCC’s Department of Pathology, said that, as an immunologist, she had found the project very helpful in highlighting the importance of vaccination programmes and how such programmes have transformed community health and wellbeing.

“My involvement in this project has opened my eyes to the power of individual stories in understanding the impact of public health initiatives,” Dr Brint said.

The Catching Stories project centres on the human experience of individuals, families and communities, from Spanish flu to Covid-19.

The exhibition foregrounds the human voice through audio installations, links to interviews, and interaction with physical objects.

It invites visitors to join interviewees in the experience of manually ventilating a child with polio throughout the night in 1956 and to move along a waiting-room bench when facing vaccination by the dreaded ‘branding iron’, or to imagine the loss of a childhood classmate from measles.

Artworks by Lesley Cox also explore the impact of polio on families and communities.

Catching Stories runs in UCC’s Boole Library until July 16.