Event type: Comedy

Ladies Who Punch in association with Mend & MakeDo Theatre Company are proud to present the UK tour of stage production Corner Boys by award-winning writer John MacKenna.

The time is 1963. The place is a small village in Ireland. For the two young women working in the local drapery shop, the visit of American President John F Kennedy to the country is all important. But for the corner boys, who spend their days on the village square, the concerns are different – women, money, devilment and darker doings fill their empty lives.

£12/£10.

Also showing at The Crown Hotel on Mon 22 Oct 2018 and linked to the Your World workshop on Sat 20 Oct 2018.

A talk about hope, the arts and community.

Dr Feargal Mac Ionnrachtaigh, Dr Michael Pierse and Professor Phil Scraton celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Belfast’s Féile an Phobail, and the publication of Féile Voices at 30, an unprecedented book of community memoirs uncovering the fascinating story of a nationally and internationally significant cultural and political festival. Drawing on the personal written accounts of many of Féile’s key activists, advocates and supporters spanning over three decades, Féile Voices at 30 explores the myriad ways that the West Belfast community organised, campaigned and struggled for recognition and against widespread demonisation in the face of often seemingly insurmountable odds. It includes the powerful narratives of an eclectic and diverse mix of individuals, including community activists, leading politicians, actors, playwrights, LGBT advocates, writers, singers, music promoters, environmentalists, academics, human rights lawyers, journalists and Irish language activists.

With access to the insider views and stories of Féile’s founding activists, Féile Voices at 30 demonstrates, details and explores the challenges and triumphs channelled through a community’s resistance to its exclusion, and the expression and transformation of its culture through the cohesion offered by the joy of a ‘festival’.

Dr Feargal Mac Ionnrachtaigh is author of Language, Resistance and Revival  focusing on the Irish language revival and on the experiences of Republican prisoners during the Conflict in the North of Ireland. He is an academic researcher and community activist.

Dr Michael Pierse is Senior Lecturer at Queen’s University, Belfast and author of Writing Ireland’s Working Class. His principal research interests are Irish literary and cultural studies, most particularly drama and fiction of working-class experience.

Prof Phil Scraton is Emeritus Professor at Queen’s University, Belfast. He is author/ editor of numerous books including Hillsborough: The Truth and several texts on prisons, childhood and conflict in Ireland.

£5.

Presented by Writing on the Wall in partnership with Liverpool Irish Festival.

Ladies Who Punch in association with Mend & MakeDo Theatre Company are proud to present the UK tour of stage production Corner Boys by award-winning writer John MacKenna.

The time is 1963. The place is a small village in Ireland. For the two young women working in the local drapery shop, the visit of American President John F Kennedy to the country is all important. But for the corner boys, who spend their days on the village square, the concerns are different – women, money, devilment and darker doings fill their empty lives.

£8/£5.

Also showing at Liverpool Irish Centre on 21 Oct 2018 and linked to the Your World workshop on Sat 20 Oct 2018.

In:Visible Women is a concept, platform and trail that runs through our festival.

Held as an event within the Liverpool Irish Festival, In:Visible Women was generated by conversations with artists, academics, activists, audiences and communities about the role of women in Irish society and creativity – today and historically. In:Visible Women is both an event and and a trail through the #LIF2018 programme, embedded in to the very fabric of the Liverpool Irish Festival.

Reflecting the difficulties still presented to women – particularly those in Ireland or of Irish descent – and the space gained in the last 12 months, contributions come from women progressing women’s rights, incredible artists and the hottest emerging performers, including (but not limited to)

Jude Kelly (Liverpool/London) – Director of Women of the World Festival
Carrie Barrett (Limerick) – rising playwright and performer
Julie McNamara (Limerick) – established artist, Director and live performer
Afrah Qassim (Liverpool) Founder and Director of Savera UK, a leading organisation in preventing domestic abuse.

With discussion, engaging presentations and a positive, welcoming atmosphere, this event is open to all, but will be of particular interest to fourth wave feminists, those who supported repealing the eighth and any one keen to meet like-minded, spirited women.

The event is ideally paired with The Guilty Feminist later the same day.

This event has been supported by the Eleanor Rathbone Charitable Trust.

Peeled Pomello Fruit (image) has been used courtesy of Charles Deluvio (Montreal) via unsplash.

£8/£5*.

* A select number of bursaries are available to those who apply direct to info@liverpoolirishfestival.com stating their interest. This is to enable barrierless access.

 

Historian, former Liverpool Irish Festival Board member and author Greg Quiery leads a facinating walking tour of the city.

A perfect companion to the Irish Heritage and South Liverpool Heritage walks this tour is led by local historians, exploring Liverpool’s world famous dockland district, its Irish traditions, connections to the Easter Rising and forgotten graveyards and tunnels.

£6/£4.

Marian Brophy (Director of The Corner Boys) facilitates a workshop encouraging participants to reflect on their world – past, present and future.

Using games, play, story-telling and shared experience, whilst focussing on identity, the workshop will explore how individuals have adapted from one way of life to another; what it is like to long to belong to a new place and how to achieve this without losing your roots. Suitable for all generations of Irish descent, from those who left home at a young age, as well as second, third, fourth… generations.

£5.

This workshop is delivered in association with Ladies Who Punch and Mend and Makedo and is a forerunner to the production of The Corner Boys, featuring at #LIF2018. See Sun 21 and Mon 22 Oct 2018 listings for more details.

Taking inspiration from Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa, LJMU Masters student, Corey Harbinson, takes a modern approach presenting new text, music and songs he has written based on Friel’s story using hymn, folk and a capella styles.

Showcasing Friel’s characters – five sisters- audiences witness the expectations placed on Irish women alongside the factors that influence and shape their circumstances, revealing the fight between family loyalty, tradition and the oppression of ‘modern’ life. Friel’s work suggests that for Ireland to progress it must modernise and become more like the UK. Harbinson likens this to Ireland within Brexit, though in 2018 perhaps Ireland’s passport and free movement gives them the upper hand?

£6.

Taking inspiration from Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa, LJMU Masters student, Corey Harbinson, takes a modern approach presenting new text, music and songs he has written based on Friel’s story using hymn, folk and a capella styles

Showcasing Friel’s characters – five sisters- audiences witness the expectations placed on Irish women alongside the factors that influence and shape their circumstances, revealing the fight between family loyalty, tradition and the oppression of ‘modern’ life. Friel’s work suggests that for Ireland to progress it must modernise and become more like the UK. Harbinson likens this to Ireland within Brexit, though in 2018 perhaps Ireland’s passport and free movement gives them the upper hand?

£6.

Stephen James Smith is a Dublin poet and playwright central to the rise of the vibrant spoken word scene in Ireland today, with poetry videos amassing over 2.5 million views. He has been commissioned by national organisations (i.e, Ireland’s St Patrick’s Day Festival and Dublin stadium sponsor Aviva) to produce work and tours internationally. He also teaches and has had his work has been translated into multiple languages.

Stephen will be supported by Liverpool based, Irish poet and author, Ciarán Hodgers, for whom Stephen wrote the foreword to Cosmocartography, due for release in Oct 2018.

Presented in partnership with the Liverpool Philharmonic.

This event is the private view for the Repeal the Eighth exhibit. Pop in and have a look at a creative response to the biggest ever vote on body autonomy.

Exhibition by Sorcha Boyle

Open Thurs-Sun 12-5pm
Open til late October 18 for the opening of the Liverpool Irish Festival

In partnership with the 2018 Liverpool Irish Festival, OUTPUT has commissioned Liverpool-based artist Sorcha Boyle to respond to the successful repeal of The 8th Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland, which now allows the government to legislate for abortion and grants new body autonomy to people in Ireland. Boyle will present a new film, ‘Idir dhá uisce Between two waters.’ This piece has two elements, voices of women in response to the repeal of the 8th Amendment, set against a diptych filmed at Lough Foyle on the Derry/Donegal border. The title Idir dhá uisce translates from Irish as ‘between two waters’. This idea of a contested body of water can relate to the female body as contested space, subject to the governance of different states.

Because of the content around abortion, this exhibition may not be suitable for younger visitors.

The Eighth Amendment of the Constitution Act (1983) amended Ireland’s Constitution, giving an equal right to life to pregnant women and their unborn child. This led to conflicts in medical and social care, leading to loss of life and moral and legal arguments for and against body autonomy. It also drove women to seek abortions -sometimes unsafely- elsewhere. This created a divide between those who could afford to choose to travel and those who could not. It upheld the notion that foetal cells carry more importance than the mother carrying them and condemned women, pregnant as the result of rape, to full term pregnancy and motherhood, irrespective of choice. This year’s public referendum revoked the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, permitting the government to legislate for abortion and grant new body autonomy for the people of Ireland.

In a brand new partnership, Liverpool Irish Festival and OUTPUT Gallery invited artists to show their response to this. This is the resulting exhibit.

Regular opening times = 12-5pm, Thurs-Sun. On opening day the gallery will stay open until 8pm.

This work has been supported by Arts Council England.