The Letters: How a Dublin film-maker was inspired by the CervicalCheck tragedy

Ann Russell and Kathleen Warner Yeates in The Letters

Andrea Smith Twitter

October 29 2021 02:30 AM

“My thoughts went straight to my mum, niece, sister, aunt and cousins. I want to say I was shocked and horrified, but I was more scared and terrified.”

Writer and director Robbie Walsh is recalling the shock he felt as the details of the CervicalCheck scandal emerged in April 2018, when it became clear that hundreds of women with cervical cancer were not told about an audit which showed they previously received incorrect smear test results.

Walsh decided to harness his craft to make a film loosely inspired by the real-life scandal. The Letters, starring Irish actors Mary Murray, Sarah Carroll and John Connors, opens in select cinemas today.

At the film’s heart are fictional stories of three women who become caught up in the screening scandal, and the impact it has on their lives and that of their families.

The women’s stories in The Letters were written by Dublin-based Walsh to represent three women in different circumstances who only have months to live. While the characters are fictional, Walsh says he consulted with some of the women and families affected by CervicalCheck when researching the film.

“I had chats with some of the women and some campaigners,” he says. “People who were affected also reached out to me once they heard the film was being made and told me their stories. It brought home to me how much of an absolute clusterf**k it was, and I don’t even know to this day if anyone has really been held accountable for it.

“I was hoping to organise a screening for the women to watch, but Covid happened. We weren’t able to do it as many couldn’t travel or had compromised immune systems.”

IFTA-nominated actress Sarah Carroll plays Cliona, a single, career-driven woman in her 30s who is on the autism spectrum.

“I was hyper-aware of the women who have gone through this kind of situation in reality and really wanted to be sensitive and respectful of that,” Carroll says.

Prior to filming, Carroll spoke to her mum about the role, as her sister — Carroll’s aunt — died of cervical cancer. She is in awe of the strength of the women who have campaigned for justice, and also of those whose stories haven’t been publicly told.

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As the three stories were shot separately, Carroll only got to see the finished result recently.

“It’s difficult to watch and uncomfortable in parts, but why wouldn’t it be as it’s an uncomfortable subject?” she says. “It stirs real emotion, like anger, sympathy, hurt and all the things you should feel when you watch a story like that.

“I hope it is seen as a good piece of cinema, as well as one that brings awareness to another societal issue in Ireland.”

Mary Murray shot to fame when playing brothel madame Janet in Love/Hate. In The Letters, she plays Sam, a widowed mother to four young daughters who is also dealing with loan sharks and debt while her health is failing.

For Mary, playing the role of a dying woman was a physically demanding one, but she was very conscious that for her, it was a role, but what she was portraying is the actual reality of other people’s lives and illnesses.

“It’s horrific and I knew I was lucky enough not to be that individual and could step away from it afterwards,” she says.

One question the making of the film poses is how the real people at the heart of the story will feel about seeing a fictionalised version of events on-screen. We reached out to a number of women and families affected by the CervicalCheck scandal, but they declined to comment.

A spokesperson for CervicalCheck said: “We are acutely aware that the issues of CervicalCheck in 2018 led to a loss of trust in our services. We are aiming to rebuild that trust by working with patients to inform the delivery of our services.”

Walsh believes his film has an important role to play as we look back on what went wrong.

“I hope it reminds people in 10 or 20 years to come that a situation like this happened. I sometimes don’t think people realise the gravity of what actually took place,” he says.

The Letters opens today at the Odeon (Charlestown), Omniplex (Rathmines, Dublin, Limerick, Cork), Eye Cinema (Galway) and Movies@ (Swords, Dundrum).

The Letters: How a Dublin film-maker was inspired by the CervicalCheck tragedy

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