One day last year Ruth Wilson, one of our most intelligent and mercurial actors on both stage and screen, went to Tuam in Northern Ireland to a children’s playground. In 2014, this location is where an estimated 796 bodies of babies and infants were discovered in a septic tank. 796. Pause for a moment and consider that number. “It’s depressing and awful and the fact it’s a children’s playground is very strange,” says Wilson.
“A shrine has been constructed made up of birthday cards, little kids’ bootees and teddy bears. And it’s the names of all the children, plus their ages, from six months old to four years, just names and names and names. It’s incredibly upsetting.”
