Silence often follows disaster.

Drawing together two impressive writers, Famished: Women and the Irish Famine comprises a performance of Cherry Smyth’s poem Famished, followed by a presentation by Jaki McCarrick on her play (recently shown in New York): Belfast Girls. Both works handle the Irish Famine, the poverty it continues to reveal and bearing witness to a lost generation.

Famished is a poetic sequence by Cherry Smyth, exploring the Irish Famine and how imperialism contributed to the largest refugee crisis of the nineteenth century. Delivered with composer Ed Bennett and vocalist Lauren Kinsella, her poetry draws on the power of collective lament, using music and expanded singing.

Belfast Girls is a play that follows five women on their flight from Famine to refuge in Australia, bereft of choice, money and nourishment. McCarrick will speak of the inspiration for the work and her plans for it now.

An in-conversation Q&A follows, in which Smyth and McCarrick reflect on each other’s work and take questions from the audience.

This event contributes to the Festival’s In:Visible Women, Family and Heritage work strands. ♀️❤️🔱 It is delivered in partnership with Liverpool Everyman and takes place in the downstairs bistro.