Maz O’Connor came to the Festival’s attention in 2018 when she discovered and shared the history she had unearthed about her family’s Irish connections.
Those findings inspired her next album, Chosen Daughter and a feature we ran (article on page 24).…
This comission is now closed and an artist selection has been made. More will follow as we get closer to #LIF2021.
Gael Linn and An tUltach and have partnered with the Liverpool Irish Festival to create a one-off, £1,000 creative commission that celebrates Irish language and folklore.…
In solitude I came at last on this exhausted ground,
Of tarmac, stone and railing
Where sandstone pillars bear quiet testament
To this abandoned field.
Sweet soil, that once gave birth to daffodils and snowdrops
To mark each year the hope of spring.…
Celebrated poet Eavann Boland passed away during 2020. To mark her passing and to the reflect the Coronavirus lockdown reegulations, we selected her poem, Quarantine, as one of two poems we asked people to record themselves reading and send back to us.…
As part of our Lockdown Lights project, we selected two poems and invited people to record themselves reading them, so we could geneate a film, to share as part of this year’s digtal launch.
Active, positive and full of creative hope, Stephen James Smith’s poem We Must Create was selected in counterpoint to Eavann Bolanf’s Quarantine.…
Back in old glory days, long since forgotten,
The flags here were smothered in snowy white cotton.
Soft as a carpet beneath merchant feet
King Cotton was plenty, King Cotton was cheap
It came by the Mersey, it came by the seas
By white canvass aloft in the westering breeze.…
In:Visible Women have long been a focus of the Festival. We’ve seen many unveiled over the years; often the equally strong partner of a famous man (such as Constance Markievicz or Maude Gonne). Alternatively, they have had their light diminished because they did not fit the social-stereotype (Eva Gore-Boothe) or threatened the patriarchal order (Kitty Wilkinson) or their time.…
We met Maz O’Connor in 2018 when we began discussions with her about being part of our In:Visible Women programme in 2019.
Featuring as one of the guest performers at our Visible Women night at the Liverpool Philharmonic, Maz’s gentle demeanour belies her determination, drive and tenacity.…
Kabosh were introduced to the Festival by the Commission for Victims and Survivors.
Our original intention was to bring a production to Liverpool, but “the best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men, gang aft a-gley”, as Robert Burns famously stated.…
Across the Festival, we have asked our partners, collaborators and artists to consider “exchange”. It is a means of connecting the programme to provide a cohesive message, whilst also demonstrating the benefits of coming together, even during times when this cannot be physically so.…
Working with Writing on the Wall, Liverpool Irish Festival have selected two poems, which we believe hold incredible relevance to the lockdown situation we find ourselves within during 2020. We’ve worked with the Sefton Park Palm House ‘Palm Readers’ group to develop the project you see below.…
Part of our role at the Liverpool Irish Festival is to support artists. Having been in touch since 2018, Maz O’Connor has performed as one of our ‘Visible Women’ (2019) and we are now supporting her venture into musical theatre composition.…
