We talk a lot in the North of Ireland about trauma, and rightly so. According to research by Ulster University, prepared for the Commission for Victims and Survivors in 2015, out of the adult population of 1.5 million, 213,000 people have mental health difficulties that appeared to be directly related to The Troubles, and 60% of these people had received no treatment for these issues.

And as understandings of trauma grow, so too do understandings of transgenerational trauma. It’s the idea that trauma can be passed down, from generation to generation, some have even tracked this back to The Potato Blight with the trauma inflicted by the starvation, colonialism and violence of the time. Areas affected by The Troubles most, would then understandably be ripe for such cases. Alessandra Celesia’s The Flats, takes a hands-on approach to actualising and exploring ideas of trauma and transgenerational trauma.

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