Luke Toomey - A Terrible Beauty - Ep 1: Take her up to Monto by Audio Tales TU Dublin

'we don't grow up as ourselves; we grow up playing a version of ourselves that sacrifices authenticity to minimise humiliation and prejudice.'
The cultural map of Ireland has changed dramatically over the last 50 years. Since the referenda on same-sex marriage, divorce, and the repeal of the 8th Amendment, the Catholic Church no longer has a monopoly over morality and so you would be forgiven for believing we are living in a fairer and more equal Ireland, for all.

Meet Adeline Berry.

Wedged within a tiny slice of an intersectional Venn diagram, Adeline is an intersex, transgender, sex worker. In the wake of the election of Donald Trump, she left Austin, Texas and returned home to Ireland alongside her wife and two children to build a new life, only to be gridlocked by the State’s adoption of an oppressive sex work legislation, an abysmal transgender healthcare system and the traumatic memories of her upbringing in Tallaght in the 70s and 80s.

All changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born.

Music featured: Blue Dot Sessions ‘Neon Drip’; The Dubliners ‘Monto’; Xylo Ziko ‘Phase 2’; Podington Bear ‘Tiny Spoons’; Podington Bear ‘Sienne’; Latch Swing ‘Menilmontant’; Ai Yamamoto ‘Walking In Depreston’; Erik Satie ‘Gnossiennes No.1’ (vibraphone solo by Han Yen Kao); Lobo Loco ‘Peaceful Morning'.

A School of Media production for TU Dublin.