Trigger for Change

Book Your Place

No Booking Necessary

Artists

Created by Sinead McCann, performance, video, installation and sculpture artist

Produced by Sinead McCann, Alan Meaney, in collaboration with The Bridge Project

Music by Eamon Bailey

Full Event Details

Trigger for Change is a radio documentary, created by artist Sinead McCann in collaboration with The Bridge Project.

It is a story about change and the challenges people with a criminal record face in securing employment on release from prison. The documentary focuses on the life story of these people and finds hope in their recovery and how they have built new lives through education, community engagement and employment.

Informed by creative workshops and interviews with men at The Bridge Project, as well as by interviews and conversations with key people working within the Irish Prison and Probation service and community, and employment sectors in Ireland.

I worked on this radio documentary because I hope others will listen to it, other people like me who might be struggling. Maybe my story will inspire them to take a second chance.

Jason Campbell, The Bridge Project

Trigger for Change was broadcasted on Newstalk FM 106-108 (a national radio station in Ireland) as part of the First Forthnight Arts and Mental Health festival. The documentary has been aired on Newstalk radio station a number of times since, and was nominated nationally for the Headline Mental Health broadcasting media award 2022.

Produced by artist Sinead McCann and radio maker Alan Meaney.

Trigger for Change is supported by funding from the Arts Council Artist in the Community Scheme, managed by Create, a national organisation for collaborative arts in Ireland. The research and development was supported by funding from the Dublin City Council Culture Company.

Trigger for Change will be available on this webpage from 13 – 22 October 2023, available 24 hours.

Running time 46 minutes.

Listen to the Documentary Here

The Bridge Project

Bridge is a community based organisation that has been working to reduce the recidivism rates of adult male offenders in the greater Dublin region since 1991.

Bridge envisions a future where all those with an offending history are afforded opportunities to develop their full potential, reintegrate with families and society and to attain employment

Bridge hopes to achieve this vision by working collaboratively with individual offenders and partner agencies to unlock potential and effective positive change. We hope to create safer communities by developing and supporting the implementation of innovative, evidence based responses and practices that reduce re-offending.

More information here: https://www.thecompass.ie/service/0015I00000CC8ZfQAL/bridge-project 

Speaker Biographies:

Dr Sinead McCann is a Dublin based artist working across the mediums of performance, video, installation and sculpture often in a context, site or community specific way. According to Sinead ‘I often work collaboratively with arts and non-arts professionals to produce innovative and challenging artworks which add an artistic contribution to public debate on important social issues in modern life’.

Recent works include the following:  Sound On! (2021), is a 3D creative sound project in collaboration with artist Alan James Burns and Saint John of God Liffey Service exploring happiness and human rights, funded by the Artist in Community Realisation Award. Small Talk (2021) is a 45-minute radio documentary in collaboration with The Bridge Project, Dublin 8 exploring access to employment for people with a criminal record, funded by a research grant as part of the Engage the City programme with Dublin City Council Culture Company and Artist in the Community Project Realisation Award. The Trial (2018) was a four channel synced video and sound installation made in collaboration with the Bridge Project Dublin 8, and University College Dublin medical historians Associate Professor Catherine Cox and Dr Fiachra Byrne, funded by a Participation Project Award from the Arts Council, a Community Award from Dublin City Council, with further funding from University College Dublin and the Wellcome Trust UK. The Trial went on National tour in 2019. 

Living Inside (2019) is a photographic exhibition of the work of Irish photo-journalist Derek Speirs, Kilmainham Jail, co-curated with historian Dr Oisin Wall, funded by the Wellcome Trust UK, and University College Dublin.  Health Inside (2018) was a public art intervention on large scale billboards and bus shelters in Dublin 7 near Mountjoy prison, in collaboration with UCD historians, Dr Oisin Wall and Associate Professor Catherine Cox funded by an Open Call Award. 

Sinead studied for her degree in Fine Art at TU Dublin (00-04), and for her Masters of Fine Art (05-08) and practice-based PhD Fine Art Sculpture (2009-2015) at the National College of Art and Design Dublin. She has worked part time (since 2009) in Technological University Dublin coordinating socially engaged curriculum-based projects between community organisations, staff and students across disciplines. She served on the board of directors of Common Ground from 2013 to 2014.

Organisations Involved / Partner Organisation(s):

Venue Information: