A one-woman, one-act play about how a love affair for football began when our narrator saw the Republic of Ireland qualify for their first World Cup in 1990.
Watch as memories the memories of travelling to see Ireland play their second World Cup final (1994) in the USA, before moving to witnessing Roy Keane’s ejection from World Cup 2002. Remember how the horrors of Hillsborough impacted on the people of Dublin as well as Liverpool and consider how sexism and racism flag up the parochial, narrow-mindedness of some fans towards others. The finale is a whistle stop tour of Liverpool’s memorable night in Istanbul, whilst the play -as a whole- reflects the ties between Liverpool and Ireland via their shared love of football.
Written and performed by local writer, actor and Irish-Scouser Geraldine Moloney Judge.
NB: The Liverpool Philharmonic has entry requirements aligned with Covid-19 safety. If attending, please make sure you are aware of these and are able to pass their requirements. Information is at this link.
Following the success of her previous play Kitty (as performed at #LIF2018), Liverpool playwright and author Carol Maginn now presents the story of another Irish migrant who confronted and overcame the many hurdles of early 19th Century society.
This play tracks the journey of Dr Barry from poverty in Cork to family in London, study in Edinburgh, and then a tumultuous and prestigious career in the British army, bucking societal pressures at every turn. This is a modern retelling of the life of a powerful historic pioneer.
We’re delighted to perform this work in the atmospheric lecture theatre of the Liverpool Medical Institution, which opened in 1837, at the height of Barry’s surgical work and medical reformism. To think that Dr Rutter (LMI’s first president) and Dr Barry may have exchanged letters or learning in the same building is to live in the play, just a little!
With local director Zara Marie Brown, and the generous co-operation of the Liverpool Medical Institution staff, this will be a unique evening, and one to remember, and we urge you to book as soon as you can!
This play runs at 6pm and 8pm on Thurs 28 and Fri 29 Oct. The 8pm showing on Thurs 28 Oct will also have a Q&A with the writer and others.
Following the success of her previous play Kitty (as performed at #LIF2018), Liverpool playwright and author Carol Maginn now presents the story of another Irish migrant who confronted and overcame the many hurdles of early 19th Century society.
This play tracks the journey of Dr Barry from poverty in Cork to family in London, study in Edinburgh, and then a tumultuous and prestigious career in the British army, bucking societal pressures at every turn. This is a modern retelling of the life of a powerful historic pioneer.
We’re delighted to perform this work in the atmospheric lecture theatre of the Liverpool Medical Institution, which opened in 1837, at the height of Barry’s surgical work and medical reformism. To think that Dr Rutter (LMI’s first president) and Dr Barry may have exchanged letters or learning in the same building is to live in the play, just a little!
With local director Zara Marie Brown, and the generous co-operation of the Liverpool Medical Institution staff, this will be a unique evening, and one to remember, and we urge you to book as soon as you can!
This play runs at 6pm and 8pm on Thurs 28 and Fri 29 Oct. The 8pm showing on Thurs 28 Oct will also have a Q&A with the writer and others.
IndieCork has partnered with the Festival since 2013, bringing a wealth of new Irish filmmaking talent to our screens.
Producing a dynamic showcase, especially for emerging Irish voices, IndieCork often illuminates the zeitgeist, showing the preoccupations of the makers. Revealing subject trends, new genres and styles arising from Ireland, Mick Hannigan’s curation -as Director of IndieCork- brings new work directly to the Liverpool Irish Festival, accessible from your home armchair.
IndieCork have their own online platform on which to view two #LIF2021 programmes, Mountrath Unlocked and New Voices from Northern Ireland. To watch -from 10am, Thurs 21 Oct-midnight, 31 Oct 2021)- you will need to register here: indiecork.filmchief.com/hub/browse To register, an email address is required. You must authenticate the address by replying to a registration email, after which you will be able to log in.
Mountrath Unlocked (Dir: Maurice O’Connell; Ireland, 2021, 53 mins, Documentary; UK Premiere)
When a forgotten town, in the middle of Ireland, is forced apart by a global crisis, the people look into their past for answers to their future.
“Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine,” is an Irish saying that translates, literally, as “People live in each other’s shadows”, meaning we rely on each other for shelter. So it is in Mountrath Unlocked. Filmmaker Maurice O’Connell has been resident in the small County Laoise town for some years now, and -in documenting how the people of Mountrath are coping with the Covid pandemic and its consequences- he creates a charming and intimate portrait of an Irish community of interlinked, mutually-supporting, lives.
The screening will be followed by an interview with Maurice conducted by Mick Hannigan of the IndieCork Film Festival.
New Voices From Northern Ireland
Filmmaking in Northern Ireland is currently going through something of a renaissance. Derry Girls, A Bump Along The Way, and others, have portrayed a vibrancy and a spirit of optimism. This specially curated programme of short films, from Northern Ireland, many funded by Northern Ireland Screen, gives expression to new cinematic voices but also, explicitly or implicitly, portrays new visions of life in the Six Counties.
This programme includes Rough, screened at #LIF2020, which has subsequently gone on to win Best Fiction Short at Krakow Film Festival and an Irish Film & Television Academy Award for Best Irish Short 2021. As the catalyst for a prompting a closer look at contemporary shorts from Northern Ireland, it Is shown here to set the scene for the new works, including Hold the Sausage (also see Hold the Sausage event listing for 30 Oct).
This is a partnership programme with IndieCork, who we thank with deep gratitude for their commitment to supporting filmmakers and to their longstanding relationship with the Festival.
Watch Party
Due to some licence timing issues, the films will now be available from 8pm on Wed 27 Oct 2021. We are sorry to disappoint anyone hoping to view the films at 8pm on 26 Oct as printed in our newspaper. We are bringing them to you as quickly as we can.
Use this link to join: https://indiecork.filmchief.com/hub
Original posting
Susan McKay’s Northern Protestants – On Shifting Ground has been a summer 2021 bestseller on both sides of the Irish border.
Described as “vital reading”, which “seamlessly weaves together personal stories and political events with deep emotional intelligence” (Claire Mitchell, The Irish Times) and “fascinating and constantly thought provoking” (Sean O’Hagan, Observer), it is a portrait of a community at a point of political crisis.
It is a sequel to Northern Protestants – An Unsettled People, published in 2000, when the Good Friday Agreement was new and memories of the relentlessly violent years of conflict were raw. There was relief; hope for better times ahead. If the killing could stop, anything might be possible. The new book explores how people from the Protestant community feel now -20 years on from the agreement- rocked to its foundations by Brexit; 100 years on from the formation of the Northern Irish state.
Susan will be interviewed by Eoin McNamee, whose novels, closely based on crime stories, are thought to take “a surgical scalpel to the thin skin of history’s corpse” (David Peace, The Thought Fox). Their conversation will explore how we look at the exchange between fact and fiction; truth and document; memory and ‘fact’.
For copies of the book visit blackstaffpress.com/northern-protestants-on-shifting-ground-9781780732640
Presented with the publishers The Blackstaff Press.
♀️?
The talk will be broadcast on YouTube (search for the Liverpool Irish Festival channel), which requires no tickets. If you would like to be part of the live Zoom transmission, and take part in the online Q&A, you will need to book. Ticket numbers are limited. Once you have booked, Eventbrite (the booking system) will send you all the necessary links to gain access to the event on the evening.
Original posting
The ground beneath our feet holds many stories.
A plaque on Mulberry Street -erected by the Great Hunger Commemoration Committee- for the Liverpool Irish Famine Trail in the 1990s, marks the resting place of some 2,600 people, who emigrated from Ireland during the Famine. They got to Liverpool, but no further. The site is now occupied by the University of Liverpool, but anyone who stops to read the plaque can’t help but be transported into history which is at once very close to and very remote from today’s city.
2600, a short film shot on Mulberry Street this summer, moves us one step closer, exploring how we can adequately remember those lost, anonymous lives. Made by research-based theatre and film production company Sidelong Glance as part of the Whose History? project, 2600 records a collective act of remembrance, which recognises the long afterlife of the Great Hunger in today’s Liverpool.
Join us for a screening of 2600, and a panel discussion with the director, Dr Eleanor Lybeck (Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool) and fellow experts, as they reflect on commemoration and collective experience in the cultures of Ireland and its diaspora.
Further reading
2600 is the second of four short films in the Instutue’s Whose History? series. 2600 was inspired by the Irish Famine Trail memorial plaque on Mulberry Street, which marks the resting place of some 2600 people. To watch the short film and learn more about its background, visit this link.
2600 is also the focal point of Near this Place: Famine Lives and Afterlives (the event listed above), an online panel discussion hosted by the Liverpool Irish Festival, featuring Dr Eleanor Lybeck, Lecturer in Irish Literature at the Institute of Irish Studies and Whose History? project lead and owner of production company Sidelong Glance, who worked on the film.
Whose History? explores questions of belonging and identity through the stories and experiences of people who have lived, worked and studied on the site of the University of Liverpool’s South Campus over the past three centuries. Below is the release schedule for the four films in the series:
‘Hey Joe’
Based on an interview with a community activist and fundraiser, this film takes place beside the memorial to Black Merchant Seamen in Falkner Square Gardens which he campaigned for.
https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/irish-studies/whose-history/hey-joe/
Available now.
‘2600’
Inspired by the Irish Famine Trail memorial plaque on Mulberry Street, which marks the resting place of some 2600 people, this film is almost entirely wordless.
https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/irish-studies/whose-history/2600/
Available now.
‘eJoy of Cooking’
This film focuses on the contemporary experience of students at the university today. Through their words we take different journeys.
https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/irish-studies/whose-history/ejoy-of-cooking/
Week beginning 25 Oct 2021
‘Let Her Witness It’
A re-imagination of the celebrated readings given by Mary E. Webb, the African American actor, during her tour of Britain in the 1850s with her husband, the writer Frank Webb, especially the reading at the Royal Institute in Liverpool in July 1857.
https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/irish-studies/whose-history/let-her-witness-it/
Week beginning 8 Nov 2021
These four films profile figures who have shaped Liverpool’s past and present, from anonymous Irish Famine migrants to contemporary XJTLU students; from a nineteenth-century African-American actress (whose performances brought the urgency of the abolitionist cause to life for Victorian Britain), to a community activist who challenged and reimagined the ways we think about war and commemoration.
Whose History? examines and celebrates the unique relationships between people and place, and between the University and the city. Professor Dinah Birch, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Cultural Engagement, said: “We at the University are proud to share in and be part of the rich history of Liverpool. We celebrate those people, events, buildings, and institutions which make and have always made this a world-class city. At the same time, we realise that in order to understand our heritage fully, we need to recognise those aspects of the past which we find disappointing, disquieting, and distressing. It is only in knowing the past, and in confronting it, that we might improve upon the present. Whose History? strikes a balance between acts of celebration and acts of recognition”.
This major civic engagement project builds on the success of the University’s Culture Unconfined Festival in May 2020, which brought literature, music, drama, and discussion to virtual audiences around the world during the first lockdown. The Culture Unconfined website continues to host some of the online performances, such as Rita Ann Higgins reading of her poem ‘I must wash down the banister’.
Professor Peter Shirlow, Director of the Institute of Irish Studies, said: “Whose History? is a fine example of the way in which the Institute aims to break down barriers between groups and communities. It challenges the invisibility of communities excluded from ‘official’ narratives. Recognition is an act, not merely of remembering, but of challenging cultural exclusion and purposeful historical amnesia”.
The four Whose History? films, based exclusively on primary sources, including interviews, literary texts and newspaper reports. Each was shot, on location, on the South Campus in July and August 2021. Informed by conversations with experts from the University, and by local historians and practitioners, they were generously funded by awards from the University of Liverpool Beacon Fund, the Alumni & Friends Fund, the School of the Arts Small Research Development Initiative Fund and the Institute of Irish Studies. Support from the Beacon Fund allowed Sidelong Glance to employ two current undergraduates to work on the development, production and promotion of the films.
Dr Lybeck, who devised and directed the films, said: “Liverpool isn’t where I’m from, but it’s a place where I feel I belong. Through Whose History?, I wanted to draw attention to some of those episodes in the city’s history that I find most compelling. It’s been a privilege to be guided through the production process by people with a special understanding of Liverpool’s past, and to have the chance to bring their stories to life.”
To participate in the conversations about all the films in this series, visit Whose History? and Sidelong Glance on Instagram (@whosehistory) and Twitter (@sidelong_glance).
For further information, and with any queries, please contact Dr Eleanor Lybeck: eleanor.lybeck@liverpool.ac.uk
The Cultural Connectedness Exchange Day is a time and place for members of the network to come together and make plans, voice sector concerns and learn from other creative people about their practice.
Recording of this event
https://youtu.be/uXFtGfEEKdg
Original listing
A regular meeting of Irish and Northern Irish artists, and the organisations that commission Irish and Northern Irish work, this session will reflect on the Cultural Connectedness Day at the start of the Festival. It will be a chance to reconnect (following the Cultural Connectedness Exchange Day on Thurs 21 Oct) and make creative plans for the year ahead.
Find out more about the network here.
Draft agenda for this session runs thus:
Tour of the Zoom room – intros and opportunities
Reflect on Cultural Connectedness Day findings/experiences
Start a clash calendar of events for 2022 and think about common themes
Plan next meetings for 2022
What do we want Irish cultural funders to do for us? + updates.
Following on from his solo show (at the Phil’s Music Room on Sat 23 Oct), Matt picks up his other hat to host Cocoons, a weekly podcast in which he is joined by incredible artists from around the world.
Together they explore stories and songs, exchanging memories and sharing (musical) notes.
Cocoons was first curated by Irish artists Matt McGinn and Cormac Neeson, at the beginning of the original lockdowns (March 2020). Since then, it has supported performances from hundreds of incredible artists (Brian Kennedy, Mary Coughlan, Duke Special and JC Stewart, to name just four) and raised over £12,000 for charities hardest-hit by the pandemic.
Guesting will be BLÁNID, a Northern Irish Devonian, with a voice that’s been compared to Kate Bush, Sinéad O’Connor and Joni Mitchell. Having released her debut album Fool’s Gold this year, this fresh indie-folk voice is not to be missed, in this usual blend of interview and seisiún; historic surrounds and Festival set-up. We are also expecting some local talent (including KingFast) and Liverpool stories. This will be a generous event, full of kind exchanges and warmth; a positive way to spend a Sunday evening with friends.
?
We are proud to state this event is linked with Black History Month and the Cuture Liverpool programme.
Recording of 25 Oct 2021: A Revolutionary Century
https://www.youtube.com/live/Zld7mg7QtNg?si=HC7K3qMlqk2jBswR
Original posting
Join authors Greg Queiry and Jack Byrne for a conversation about the image -and reality- of the Irish Community in Liverpool.
Using their publications as reference, they’ll discuss the myths and reality of the city nicknamed ‘Ireland’s second capital’.
Greg’s history book, In Hardship and Hope (G&K Publishing, 2017), charts the earliest development of the Irish in Liverpool; through the traumatic famine-period, up to modern times. As the organiser of many walking tours, a poet and teacher, Greg brings an expertise in history, especially of Liverpool’s north end communities. Jack Byrne’s fictional novel, Under The Bridge (Northodox Press, 2021) takes its starting point as the post-WW2 wave of emigration from Ireland to the UK, as well as his lived-experience of a ‘Catholic not Irish’ upbringing in Speke.
From the Kimmage ‘brigade’ Garrison in the 1916 rising, to Brendan’s Behan’s arrival in Liverpool; through the difficult period of the ‘Troubles’, Liverpool -the city- and the island of Ireland have always been connected. Whatever your connection to the Irish experience or Liverpool, this conversation promises to be interesting and informative.
This event is partnered with The Liverpool Literacy Agency and #2021LiverpoolWrites.
?
The talk will be broadcast on YouTube (search for the Liverpool Irish Festival channel), which requires no tickets. If you would like to be part of the live Zoom transmission, and take part in the online Q&A, you will need to book. Ticket numbers are limited. Once you have booked, Eventbrite (the booking system) will send you all the necessary links to gain access to the event on the evening.
Keep in touch
Newsletter
Sign up to keep up to date with what's on in the city and the region!
