So proud of our mindfulness teacher Martin Towey, whose play “An Act of Madness” featured in this year’s Hinterland Festival of Literature and Arts in Kells, Co Meath. 

McEntee’s funeral parlour was packed to capacity for the reading.  And the moving and emotive performance was followed by an equally moving discussion amongst the audience…

CLICK ABOVE to watch back…

Background: the play, which is in four acts, is based upon the story of Martin’s great grandmother, Bridget Towey, who was committed to an asylum in 1914. Her committal order stated that she suffered from ‘melancholia’ (most likely perinatal depression). At the time of her committal, the Irish legal system saw a direct association between criminality and insanity (Walsh, O. 2022). This link further reinforced the stigma associated with mental illness. In Bridget’s case, she spent the remainder of her life behind the walls of Connaught District Lunatic Asylum, dying there in 1939…