“If there’s one thing Liverpool and Ireland have in common it’s a powerful, exciting counter–culture that’s sprung from its diversity and diaspora” Festival Manager, Laura Naylor
â— 50 events across 10 days at 30 venues
â— Music acts cover hip–hop, electronica, pop, folk and traditional.
â— New partnerships with Unity Theatre, Liverpool Music Week, The Small Cinema, Mellowtone, Liverpool John Moore’s University and 10 new venues across Liverpool form part of the Festival’s 2015 programme
The Liverpool Irish Festival returns in October 2015, celebrating the cultural connections between Liverpool and Ireland. This year through music, food, drink, art, performance and film, the Festival will explore how a younger generation that has grown up in a rich cultural diversity is developing a powerful counter–culture both across the Irish Sea and in Liverpool.
In 2015, highlights of the Festival will include;
Visiting the UK for the first time, the Meta–Perceptual Helmets play with visual perception and ask if we have two eyes, why is our vision so limited?. Look through the eyes of different animals to explore how nature has considered all different possibilities from the hyper–stereo vision of the hammerhead shark, the 350 degree vision of the horse, the separate rotatable eyes of the chameleon. The helmets explore these zoological topologies but bring in two from mythology and literature as well, the Cheshire cat and the Cyclops. Wearing a helmet you become a hybrid, part human, part machine, part animal but also, as you are observed, part artwork as well. Created by Irish artists Anne Cleary and Declan Connelly the helmets will be available to wear for free across Liverpool city centre.
A performance at Liverpool’s Kazimier by the Rusangano Family, made up of God Knows, MuRli and mynameisjOhn. 2 MCs and 1 DJ from Ireland, Togo and Zimbabwe. This is a rap collective based in the West of Ireland who wear their hip–hop and electronic influences proudly on their sleeves. Exploring issues such as identity and belonging, expect honest and double–edged lyricism from a group that has supported Snoop Dogg and Run the Jewels, won favour from everyone from the BBC and become a regular in top ten album charts. The performance will include live collaboration with Liverpool artists from the exciting new label ‘Fly High Society’
In a UK live premiere, ambient electronic music from Ryan Vail and Ciaran Lavery who bring ‘Sea Legs’ to Liverpool, a beautiful mini album exploring maritime life, Donegal fishermen, seagulls, the wind and the sea. Ciaran is an alt–folk performer with 11 million plays on Spotify, while Ryan is better known for his minimal electronic soundscapes. ‘Sea Legs’ takes its listeners on a windswept journey, artfully crafted to a quiet timelessness.
Terri Hooley, the record store owner, music lover, radicalist and idealist whose development of Belfast’s punk scene is charted in the 2013 film Good Vibrations will introduce a screening of the film at Liverpool’s Small Cinema. A man who galvanised a music movement in sectarian Belfast in the 70s, who introduced the world to what John Peel called the best pop song over, Teenage Kicks by the Undertones, will talk about underground scenes, championing music and bringing life to a city.
There will be dystopian cityscapes from Belfast print maker Leo Boyd whose work tackling the absurdity of predicting the future will be displayed in 92 Degrees Coffee on Hardman Street. The images will also be brought to life using augmented reality technology from Liverpool digital art mavericks, Draw & Code.
Meanwhile Bluecoat presents the first major solo show in a UK public gallery by Dublin based artist Niamh O’Malley. The artist presents new drawings, sculpture and video and the artist will be in conversation on 15th October.
A powerful exhibition called Women to Blame will be open at the Small Cinema, 57 Victoria Street throughout the Festival, charting 40 years of women’s struggle in Ireland for the right to control their bodies, their fertility and reproductive rights. A glimpse into a staggering archive, the multimedia exhibition discusses contraception and abortion rights in Ireland. The ties to Liverpool are painful acute; many Irish women sailed (and continue to fly) to Liverpool for abortion and are homed and supported by Liverpool women while they stay in the city.
Food and drink continues to be a popular strand of the Festival. Liverpool’s first ever all–Irish Tap Takeover celebrating the exploding craft beer scene in Ireland will take place over the whole Festival at the 23 Club and Clove Hitch. The event will showcase the best craft beer in Ireland on cask and keg and visitors will also get the chance to meet the brewer from one of Ireland’s leading craft breweries. Meanwhile a Master Distiller from Irish distillers in County Cork will introduce Liverpool to the wonders of Irish Pot Still, a style of whiskey that is unique to Ireland and to the Midleton distillery. Tasters will get to sample special limited edition whiskeys and enjoy an after party with some of Liverpool’s finest musicians.
The Liverpool Irish Festival will continue to host Festival favourites including the free Family Day at the Museum of Liverpool, which will include a talk by famous novelist, Glen Patterson, and ‘Landfill Rhythms’ a family workshop making musical instruments from junk with the chance to perform. Family fun will continue with an exciting new version of Gulliver’s Travels at the Unity Theatre.
The extraordinary film programme includes several previews, premieres and award winners including a screening of Bafta–winning and Oscar nominated Boogaloo and Graham by Michael Lennox as part of the shorts series with Indie Cork, a special preview of new film Brooklyn (not on general release until November) from writers Colm Toibin and Nick Hornby featuring a stellar cast including Julie Walters and Jim Broadbent and a première of ‘Name Your Poison’. Name your Poison is a brand new independent film looking at the incredible story of Michael Malloy, aka ‘Mike the Durable’ and ‘Iron Mike’, a homeless Irishman from County Donegal, who lived in New York during the 1920’s and is famous for surviving a number of attempts on his life by five acquaintances, who were attempting to commit life insurance fraud. Free tantalising poisons on offer for the brave!
Liverpool Philharmonic hosts emerging pop and award winning folk artists Róisín O and Dallahan in an exciting double bill in the brand new Music Room while Christy Moore plays in the hall. Live Irish Music from the city’s best musicians will delight audiences throughout the city’s pubs from The Edinburgh to the Caledonia.
Laura Naylor is the Festival Director. “One of the powerful ties uniting Liverpool and Irish culture is pride, identity and a strong politically motivated, exciting counter culture. When we think of Ireland we may have a very traditional picture in our minds but that’s often not the same as what is emerging and what the younger generation is creating. The rich diversity in both Liverpool and Ireland has led to a migrant culture, a repurposing of old traditions that are being reinvented and reworked. That’s how culture evolves and develops.”
This Festival is about celebrating the cultural connections between Liverpool and Ireland, both contemporary and traditional. We hope that people will be keen to explore how the two cultures are similar in more ways than we may have imagined”.