Laying Out

On the last day of May 2025, we held a participatory event in St Peter’s on North Main Street, Cork City.

An open blue wooden door to St Peter's, North Main Street, Cork next to a font. The door has a sign on it that says "The Bábóg Project".

An information display about The Bábóg Project set up across two tables. There is a candle, a stone, some pebbles, and photographs.

The weather was clear as we carried box upon box into the deconsecrated church. Each box contained hundreds of our perfectly handcrafted bábóga.

33 plastic storage boxes stacked up, containing 12,000 handmade dolls for The Bábóg Project before they were laid out together for the final time.

Having measured out the space, we taped guide marks on the floor. Square boxes that were to contain the dolls.

A square marked with green tape on a concrete floor, partially filled with Bábóg Project dolls and a plastic storage box containing more dolls.

People travelled from all over Ireland to come and help us take each little doll out of the box. To hold it, to marvel at the workmanship, the effort, the care and love that went into each and every one. Every doll was laid out with tender care. It took hours of slow, mindful work. We cried, we marveled, we showed each other ones that caught our eye or broke our hearts.

Volunteers laying out Bábóg Project dolls in evenly spaced squares marked out on the floor of St Peter's, Cork.

We told and listened to each other’s stories. We hugged, and laid comforting arms around each other. We held anger and outrage alongside grief and longing.

Six women looking at Bábóg Project dolls laid out in regular squares on the floor of St Peter's, Cork.

Laura Whalen, curator of The Bábóg Project, making a speech during the Laying Out exhibition at St Peter's, Cork on 31 May 2025. Images of dolls are projected on the wall behind her. She is standing behind a microphone, reading from an open folder. O

Laura Whalen, curator of The Bábóg Project, said a few words, including this piece that she wrote as the project closed in November 2020:

And here we are.
Sitting in circle.
It has been a long night.
The stars burn bright overhead and the fire’s glow is dimming.
We sit here. In this ancient circle.
A circle our souls have searched for, perhaps forever.
In our laps are the dolls we created.
Sewing, stitching, knotting, weaving, knitting.
Our hands working.
Our hearts loosened and our stories began to flow.
She told us of the birth of her child.
She told us of his death.
She told us of shame. Of pain. Of suffering.
She told us of family. Of love. Of joy.
She stayed silent. And we heard.
She wailed.
She laughed.
Her heart broke.
She looked up and saw love and felt her shame dissolve.
She felt alone and someone put their hand on her back.
A hug.
We wove our stories into and around each other.
We wove our stories into and around the dolls in our laps.
Into and around the land we are sitting on and far beyond.
We have listened and we have heard.
We have heard those stories never before told.
We have seen the compassion.
We have seen those who did not want to join us in this circle, and that is OK too.
All of you is welcome here.
But now it is late.
Our dolls are made.
But what we have woven, when we look around this circle, we will carry with us forever.
We are part of it always.

There was a steady presence throughout the day, of people who had travelled to be there, of people who had created dolls, of people who had wandered in off the streets who had never even heard of this part of Ireland’s terrible truth.

The Bábóg Project Laying Out exhibition at St Peter's, Cork. Some volunteers are kneeling on the floor, laying out dolls in regular, evenly-spaced squares. Other people are standing up, looking down at the dolls in quiet contemplation.

The scale of the work is shocking. The time given by so many awe-inspiring. The detail of the work is incredible and the pain portrayed palpable. The colours of the dolls inspire hope and the truth of why they were made heartbreaking.

Hundreds of tiny, colourful Bábóg Project dolls laid out in a square on the floor of St Peter's, Cork during the Laying Out exhibition.

As the afternoon came upon us we invited people to begin to take dolls away with them. They chose them carefully, each with their own reason for doing so. Some people took many, some just one.

A man and a woman crouching down in front of a square of Bábóg Project dolls laid out on the floor. The woman is offering a small blue doll to a younger woman, perhaps her daughter. There is an open plastic box full of other dolls.

We are continuing to share this part of the work, and invite you to share in it too. To create a space, at home, at work, in your local community, to home these little dolls. To share with those around us this incredible body of work. To spread the message and to continue to say: “We care, we care, we care”.

Please see this page for more information on requesting dolls.

Volunteers laying out Bábóg Project dolls on the floor of St Peter's, Cork. Text and images are projected on to the back wall. There is a microphone stand and public address speaker.

Young volunteers of two girls and two boys in pairs laying out Bábóg Project dolls on the floor of St Peter's, Cork.

Two women crouched down in front of a display of Bábóg Project dolls. One of the women is holding and looking at a yellow doll.