Event type: Comedy

Irish and Northern artists, along with those who commission Irish work in England, come together for a series of engaging sessions, exploring and embodying ‘connectedness’.
What to expect
During the day, we will discuss our creative work; experience artist-led interactions and make connections.

This is a day for professional and creative networking; peer-to-peer conversations and activity that helps to build a better creative community, with the aim of establishing collaborations and generating partnerships for the future. This year, ‘hunger for connection’ will be used as a driver for making work happen.

Working itinerary (subject to amends)

Intros and networking
Memory with Doug Devaney
Action learning set on #CCEN collaborations
Collaborating with Irish arts practitioners who experience racism, with Lorraine Maher
Commitments to collaborations.

More about #CCEN
The Cultural Connectedness Exchange Network or #CCEN is an informal network of individuals, who have signed up to share their details with one another and act as an advocacy group for Irish creative practice. Members include the Irish Embassy, General Consul and Irish in Britain, along withseveral independent artists and creative organisations. To learn more about our work, our members and to help determine if this day would be a useful testing ground for you, please visit our #CCEN page, here.

Festival strands this event contributes to: In:Visible Women, Nook and Cranny Spaces and Heritage. ♀️ ??

Arrivals welcome from 11am onwards. Formal introductions begin at 11.30am. Day ticket includes lunch.

Tony Birtill remembered
On 21 Oct 2021, Liverpool (and Ireland) lost a great man; Tony Birtill.

A Gaeilge and walking enthusiast, Tony was a keen historian, linguist and educator. Marking a year since he passed, this lecture celebrates Tony’s life. We will also launch Tony’s library (maintained at the Centre) and share a memorial package, created by several organisations he was associated with. Enter to music from Tony’s friends, before hearing from those who knew Tony best (in a space he knew all too well), including a lecture from historian, poet and peer Greg Quiery.

Liverpool Irish Festival, Liverpool Irish Centre, Conradh na Gaeilge Learpholl (Conradh na Gaeilge Liverpool), The Institute of Irish Studies (University of Liverpool) and Oideas Gael have worked collaboratively to create a memorial package in memory of our friend, teacher and lifelong learner of the Irish Language, Tony Birtill, as well as to present this event. Details of the memorial package and library will be shared at the event, as well as in our Festival newspaper and online.

The event contributes ot the Festival’s Family and Heritage strands of work.

Fion Gunn is a London-based Irish diaspora artist, who has focused on travel and belonging throughout her career.

Arrivals/Departures forms part of Gunn’s year-long residency (launched 31 March 2022) at University of Liverpool’s Institute of Irish Studies.

Having travelled to and worked in China frequently, Gunn has born witness to -and is an example of- the developing global trade of arts, culture and societies. Nevertheless, a key theme in Fion’s work is displacement; whether temporary and enriching or chronic and distressing. Perhaps, more than ever, the reality of living on the knife-edge of political and environmental catastrophe is being realised around the globe…

Gunn’s imagery incorporates the visual language of migration, conflict and generational trauma, asking “what does the experience of living mean for us as individuals and as a global society?”. As a port city, steeped in industrial history and migration, Liverpool is an ideal home for this body of work, which features ports acting as literal and metaphorical entrances and exits throughout Gunn’s portfolio.

From Cork to Shanghai, Dubai to Alexandria; Gunn explores what it means to travel, its impact on memory, its historical weight and travel’s power to heal or corrupt. Globalism -in terms of commercial trade and human experiential exchange- is central to these works.

With a portfolio spanning painting, collage, sculpture, immersive and physical installations, performance, AR trails and VR, Gunn’s practice is constantly evolving to match the ebbs and flows of her subject matter.

Gunn was born and raised in Cork; graduating from Crawford College of Art & Design before spending a post-graduate year at Ecole des Beaux-Arts Supérieure de Nancy. She has exhibited across Europe and China, securing multiple awards from Arts Council England, Arts Council Ireland and Culture Ireland.
Additional activities: Free Family Workshops
All workshops are led by local artist Pamela Sullivan, and are most suitable for children aged 4-11, but all ages and abilities are welcome. The workshops are free, no registration is required, just drop in during the times below (to the Victoria Gallery & Museum).

Saturday, 20 August 2022
Time: Drop in between 1pm and 4pm
Theme: Make your own jellyfish to take home! Link.

Saturday, 17 September 2022
Time: Drop in between 1pm and 4pm
Theme: We’re All in the Same Boat – Stories of migration.
Create your own boat and imagine the journeys you can make. Link.

Saturday, 22 October
Time: Drop in between 1pm and 4pm
Theme: What does home mean to you?
Inspired by exhibition Arrivals / Departures, explore the concept of ‘home’ and create your own ‘home’ using old maps. Link.

Saturday, 12 November
Time: Drop in between 1pm and 4pm
Theme: The Vast Seas.
Make your own sea creatures and celebrate the origin of life on this planet.

Victoria Gallery and Museum workshops may be added to across the exhibition period. Keep checking this link and looking for Arrivals/Departures to see new additions.

Festival work strands this exhibition relates to: ♀️❤️??

Image credit: Fion Gunn, Endure.

In this series of miniature works, Pamela explores the forgotten people of Ireland, recreating landscapes within Merseyside’s urban jungle.
Guerilla exhibition
Pamela has always preferred unusual venues. She has exhibited all over the northwest; in derelict buildings, empty spaces, empty shops, building sites. For #LIF2022 She has created trails of artworks in trees, under benches, on walls and all over Liverpool town centre, especially in sites close to points of interest on the Liverpool Irish Famine Trail, as well as some Festival venues. She leaves art works for people to find and take home, as well as artwork attached to buildings for people to map and record on social media. Readers will need to look out… If you find one, you should take a photo, load it to social media and tag in @LivIrishFest and hashtag #LIF2022home. As Pamela builds her trail, we will expand the online exhibition.
Questions raised
Pamela’s work focusses on ‘the Forgotten’. Keep your eyes peeled at Festival venues -and across the Liverpool Irish Famine Trail- to see if you can find any of Pamela’s work. Though diminutive in scale, the impact is monumental. Her transported spaces imply abandonment and displacement. When you see them, think about how they make you feel; how they relate to world and what you can do to protect them. You might consider the work’s isolation, vulnerability and endangered status; do these former homes remind you of people and the way they can be cast from countries by forces quite out of their control? How do you help? What is your role? Pamela’s work asks all these questions and many more besides.

Look out for some pieces by Pamela at The Williamson Art Gallery (sharing space withour Sweeney’s Unquiet Island’s exhibition), Museum of Liverpool (on our Family Day), Liverpool Irish Famine Trail sites and other festival venues. To follow Pamela, visit Facebook @pamela.sullivan.547
Online views
During the Festival, we will build a series of images up below. Keep checking back to see new houses in new locations.

 

Strands of work this exhibiton relates to: ♀️❤️??

Liverpool-based artist David Jacques’s work is often narrative driven, referencing literary genres such as speculative fiction, magical realism and weird fiction. David’s contribution to Housing is exhibited here at The Reader –where it is presented as a house within a house- along with several studies on paper. The Reader is a national charity that uses the power of literature and reading aloud to transform lives.

David’s presentation offers a surreal scenario. A dollhouse has been exposed to an eco-nightmare. Oil pipes contort underground and penetrate through the burned-out structure, piercing the roof to spout bulbous clouds of carbon. The shape of this violent intrusion is cast as almost arboreal, serving as a delirious subversion of certain fossil fuel company logos, particularly those that attempt to signify kinship with the natural world.

In accompaniment with David’s dollhouse, there are a series of studies relating to Esso Gasoline’s ‘Happy Oil Drop Kid’. This mascot was used to front their worldwide marketing campaigns during the 1950’s and early 1960’s. Diminutive in stature, the ‘Oil Drop Kid’ was realised as a mythical sprite-like character, with a permanently happy demeanour. However, the rendering of him here sees a partly resurrected, grotesque and malevolent Puck-like figure, definitively up to no good.  Ultimately, the studies operate somewhat like Medieval marginalia, in relation to the dollhouse assemblage, whereby they realise as a satirical digression of sorts.

This exhibit is the result of a recent collaborative residency with Irish artists Anne-Marie McKee (Derry, Northern Ireland) and Ciara Finnegan (Heemstede, North Holland) for the Art Arcadia space (Derry) and subsequently the 2022 Liverpool Irish Festival. The residency was constructed around Ciara’s concept of developing a ‘nodal experimental art space’, central to which is the template of an archetypal Dutch dollhouse that is shared, assembled and affected through the interventions of the participating artists.
Where it began
The Dollhouse Space is an experimental, non-profit contemporary art space, based
in North Holland and cyberspace. Designed to offer a critical platform, to artists who are also primary carers, The Dollhouse Space supports a re-examining of value in terms of both time/physical scales and virtual/physical states. It proposes a compassionate alternative to existing institutional design and artistic production.

Simultaneously a tiny physical gallery space (a mass-produced 1974 Dutch dollhouse) and a (theoretically) infinitely expandable virtual space, The Dollhouse Space tests the role of scale, value, materiality and virtual worth in the art world today. It explores the potential of other curatorial and institutional models, rethinking exhibition and artistic residency practices to provide sustainable alternatives that maximise creative potential and artistic exchange while minimising the use of finite material resources.

Sharing sympathies on residency-design and critical approaches to the architecture of ‘The Exhibition’, through Housing, Art Arcadia and The Dollhouse Space explore the idea of nodal experimental art spaces. Whilst on remote residency with Art Arcadia (Derry), the three artists worked to develop three dollhouses.
The model and the process
Built from the architectural plans of the ‘original’ dollhouse, and located in different geographical regions, these dollhouses illustrate the potential of a decentralised network that is simultaneously large, but operates at an autonomous, small-scale, intimate level.

Housing culminated in a presentation of the three dollhouses at Art Arcadia for Derry’s Culture Night (Sept annually). David’s is built of hardboard, with an animated plumbing system. Anne-Marie built a two-dimensional model, cut and stitched from woven polypropylene sacking. Lastly, Ciara’s is built of transparent plexiglass.
Learn more

You can follow the artists’ thoughts and processes during the residency
at artarcadia.org/housing
To find out more about David’s work visit: davidjacques.org
Ciara Finnegan’s Instagram is also worth looking at, for more on The Dollhouse Space, and the rich-content multimedia she has generated from it: instagram.com/thedollhousespace
For more about The Reader visit thereader.org.uk

Acknowledgements
For several years, Art Arcadia and Liverpool Irish Festival have mapped exchanges between Liverpool and Derry. This collaborative residency has been funded by Derry City and Strabane District Council, Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Arts Council England. It is delivered in partnership between Art Arcadia and Liverpool Irish Festival. The work has been hosted by Art Arcadia in Derry and The Reader in Liverpool.

Strands of work this exhibition will relate to: ??

The artists have already begun work on their residencies and are working collaboratively to create a blog series, whilst developing their individual spaces. To follow their thoughts and outputs, visit this link.

***SOLD OUT***

As Hallowe’en (Samhain) approaches, four guests arrive at an Irish mansion for a murder mystery dinner.

The house, situated on an island, is reputed to be haunted by the spirit of the Lost Girl. As the evening unfolds, it becomes clear that there’s another agenda at work, and the four guests are forced to confront some difficult questions. Who can they believe? And who is the Fifth Guest? This dark comedy holds the answers!

The play is to be held in The Hope Street Theatre, connected with The Liverpool Arts Bar. Please be aware that there are 8 steps in to the venue. Once inside, there is same-level access throughout.

Completely informal opportunity to come a long for a tune. The first seisiún of two in the Festival, the other takes place here again on Fri 28 Oct 2022.

Bring an instrument, your voice and a will to play along. There’ll be Festival friends to help bring the gang together, whilst a fully stocked bar -in one of the most historic and quirkiest pubs in Liverpool- eases you towards the dawn.

PK’s is short for Peter Kavanagh’s.

Completely informal opportunity to come a long for a tune. The second seisiún of two in the Festival, the other takes place here the Fri prior (21 Oct 2022).

Bring an instrument, your voice and a will to play along. There’ll be Festival friends to help bring the gang together, whilst a fully stocked bar -in one of the most historic and quirkiest pubs in Liverpool- eases you towards the dawn.

PK’s is short for Peter Kavanagh’s.

Reroot is a short animation, produced in English and Gaeilge by Northern Irish TV and film company Dogleap Productions.

It is intended for a family-friendly, multi-age audience. Commissioned by Liverpool Irish Festival, Gael Linn and An tUltach, it links to the Festival’s theme (hunger) by looking at character identities and how they’re motivated by different needs (mental health, community cohesion, culture and environment). Below, the creative team explore the film’s meaning and development, along with how a film is made, financed and supported.

The film will only be available to watch during #LIF2022. To view the film, enter the password “R00Ts2022” (in the box below).
English language version

Irish language version

Animatic-Animation-Action
Context for Reroot
Reroot is a deceptively simple film with lots of moving parts. Delivered by an ensemble of discarded objects, quirky weeds and wildflowers, they communicate universal stories with surprising ease.

The story follows Plastic Bottle after she’s been thrown into a weed-filled patch of urban wasteland, under a Belfast carriageway. She’s down-in-the-dumps and homesick. Ever the optimist, she tries to fit in with the eco-community and makes friends with the wild lives growing around her. After meeting a (not-so-prickly) Nettle, a comforting Claddagh Ring and a fearless Face Mask, they learn it’s okay not to be okay and not to know your way; we’re all wildflowers in this world.

Connor: “Whilst humans battle with issues of division and diversity, our eco-community suffers. Reroot provides viewers -young and old- with an opportunity to talk about difference in a positive, celebratory way, whilst learning about our natural world, carbon foot printing, cultural heritage and the importance of minding ourselves (and the minds of others). If we have the right conversations for actionable change, then humans can live in harmony, embracing all kinds of identities”.
People
The film was created, directed and produced by Connor Richmond, who has credits including Emmerdale (ITV), feature film Boys From County Hell (2020), children’s animated series Pablo (CBeebies/RTÉjr), Sol (TG4/BBC Alba/S4C) and upcoming BBC One drama Blue Lights.

Connor -who won the open call pitch- is honoured to produce the short, having gained additional support from multiple investors to engage the project and crew. “It’s such a special opportunity to tap into the imagination of our viewers; to celebrate and explore folklore and the welfare of our wildlife and wild lives in a contemporary and original way. It’s a story about individuals, place and connection. What grounds us (and them), through the thunder and rain of such dark times, is the colour and zest of our collective community spirit; our sunshine and light! Friendship is instinctive meaning we can break down barriers to overcome difference. Really, we’re all wildflowers learning how to grow, so this is about all of us. No flags or divisive borders, just the colours of the rainbow and our character’s conversations”.
Place and purpose
Set in Belfast –a place currently on the front pages due to Irish Sea border and Brexit debates- the underpass represents a mythical space, woven in to the fabric of folklore and fairy tales. It’s the perfect space to hear indigenous words from the wild. Irish-language voiceover director, Clíodhna, adds, “it’s a wonderful opportunity to set the Irish language on the world stage. Encouraging us to return to our Reroot reminds us of the importance of identity”. She recalls the proverb: ‘Níl aon tinteán mar do thinteán féin’ (‘there’s no place like home’), before explaining “Reroot celebrates the beauty of our native place. Through the excitement and playfulness of these wild lives, audiences can find a true sense of belonging, hope and heritage”.

As the war in Ukraine rages; news of refugees, displacement and the creation of diasporic migrant groups is rife. For those with a sense of ‘home’ there is a commonly held belief that identity and language provide roots. Chiming with ‘hungers’ and need for nourishment, warmth and safety, the film nods to diasporic experiences of being far from home; feeling lost and lonely and being isolated within new communities. These feelings can trigger mental health issues and anxiety, flagging the importance of personal wellbeing; connecting with nature; breathing fresh air; laughing and crying; listening and learning… nourish to flourish.
Animatic to animation
Resources: funds and humans
Producing animation is a multi-levelled process with many stages of production. Though ‘only’ a short film, it’s is executive produced by DAL Productions and Gallagher Films and received funding from Northern Ireland Screen’s Irish Language Broadcast Fund, CelAction, Turning Point NI, Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council, Aisling Ghéar Theatre Company and independent financier, Cherry Love, from Lovely Looks Boutique (Limavady) as well as the initial commission.

Reroot is written by Claire Handley; with animation directed by Liam Weatcroft, animated by Jessica Maple and edited by Charlotte Kieran. Reroot was storyboarded by Rosie Cash; art directed and designed by Maebh McHugh; Irish-language voiceover directed by Clíodhna Ní Chorráin and musical score composed by Calum McCormick. It features a star-studded cast of contemporary talent, including Siobhán McSweeney (Derry Girls/Holding), Liam Fox (Emmerdale), Orla Mullan (Marcella/The Fall), Morgan C Jones (Boys From County Hell/Vikings), Diona Doherty (Give My Head Peace/Penance), Aaron Barashi (Thomas and Friends/Ladybird & Bee), Aidan McCann (Red Rock/The Holiday), Sadbh Breathnach (Sol), and Liverpool-actor Philip S McGuinness (The Responder/The Alienist).
Process
After the script is written, storyboards are drawn, before an animatic (a visual moving story board) is edited to a temporary ‘scratch’ voiceover. This helps pace the energy of the story, influencing the shape of the musical score. Later follow rough cuts referred to a ‘first pass animations’, honed over time. Talent recruitment and voice recordings take place throughout, whilst character artwork and background designs are finalised. After the characters are ‘rigged’ and placed within the layout of the scene, the process of animation begins. This is followed by sound-mixing, scoring and final mastering. This lengthy process is a collaboration between many crew-members who, in this instance, all work within the Northern Ireland screen industry.

Writer, Claire, comments “it’s been an absolute pleasure to help bring Reroot to the screen. In a world where we can often feel adrift, this story underlines the societal goal of sustainability and peaceful co-existence. I’m so excited for audiences to meet these little characters”.

Claire wrote the script based on Connor’s original story. Together they’ve developed each character’s meaning. Dandelion symbolises the return of life and resilience. Forget-Me-Not embodies true love and respect. Nettle represents healing. Claddagh Ring epitomises friendship, loyalty and love. Face Mask presents mental health struggles (especially relating to the pandemic) and -lastly- Plastic Bottle depicts non-environmentally friendly, single-use waste.
Connection
“As we meet the wild lives -in their patch of wasteland- we realise this barren, abandoned space is their world. For them it’s a place of adventure, learning and friendship. Together, they are diverse and dynamic; they have an ecology and learn to love what ‘home’ means to them”, comments Connor.

Connor further reflects, “It’s been an incredible pleasure to co-direct this film, as we put forward important messages, whilst showcasing an incredible variety of creative talent. I’m proud of what has been achieved and I am looking forward to the audience getting to join us in the wildlife”.

Reroot ‘s creative team would like to thank all financiers, cast and contributors for supporting the project. “We hope to remind viewers, around the world, that no matter where you find yourself, you can always find a way back home. Using your identity by speaking with people about it is a way of keeping it alive. If there is an action to take away from Reroot , it is to speak to one another, learn from one another and understand the skills and differences we can offer one another as well as going green. We encourage you to do both”.

Sweeney’s Unquiet Islands is an exhibition of original prints made by Northern Irish Wirral-based artist Martin McCoy.
Origin
Taking their starting point from the medieval Irish story Buile Suibhne (bˠɪlʲə ˈhɪvʲnʲə or “Bwullya Hevna”), renamed Sweeney in modern texts, Martin uses the motif of landscapes -as described in the story- to create a contemplation on our relationship to place and the role of location in shaping identity.

To summarise, the story describes the cursed life of Suibhne (Sweeney), King of Dal Araidhe. Having fallen foul of the Christian Church, Sweeney is condemned. He is forced to spend his remaining years roaming Ireland and the Western Isles; at night, in all weathers, in a constant state of anxiety. Stripped of his human status -and bound by his physical and metaphorical hunger- he questions his identity.
Art
Martin’s etching series replies to the text. Manipulating known locations and layering them in ways that create ambiguous qualities, Martin mirrors Sweeney’s ravings. The images confuse and distort our understanding, helping us to question what we know about the images.

The exhibition will feature a show catalogue. The exhibit will feature additional works from Pamela Sullivan’s The Forgotten. Also on display will be information about Hot Bed Press, the local print studio in which exhibition was pressed.

The Liverpool Irish Festival proudly presents this exhibition in partnership with The Williamson Art Gallery (funded by Wirral Council).

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