Next door to The Map by Alice Maher and Rachel Fallon, a whisper emanates from a darkened space: We Are The Map is a text and soundscape by Sinéad Gleeson and Stephen Shannon.

We Are The Map is an integral audio piece creating an immersive soundscape that accompanies The Map. The incantatory sound quest is narrated by an ‘everywoman’ who moves around a new terrain. The everywoman’s freedom of movement is in contrast to the many women who were unable to escape the laundries, mother and baby homes or homes where they worked non-stop.

We Are The Map is divided into 24 sections echoing the 24 books of the Odyssey. It is a journey, a pilgrim’s progress, a quest through new lands and terrains.

Gleeson and Shannon collaborated on the sound and texture of the piece, adding music from Mary Barnecutt, Sadhbh Sullivan and Matthew Nolan. It builds to a final chorus of 36 individual voices united in a mantra, their herstories filling areas of Maher and Fallon’s mappa mundi.

Voices such as Lynn Ruane, Catherine Corless, Vicky Phelan, Ailbhe Smith, Felicia Speaks, Rosaleen McDonagh, Olwen Fouéré, Marian Keyes, women from Tallaght and the artists commissioned through The Magdalene series. They all carry their own stories that now inhabit The Map.

We Are The Map was commissioned by Rua Red South Dublin Arts Centre, Alice Maher and Rachel Fallon to accompany The Map.