RADICAL! WOMEN AND THE IRISH REVOLUTION

Radical! Women and the Irish Revolution (2022) is a podcast and poetry publication created by Julie Morrissy as Poet-in-Residence at the National Library of Ireland. In 2023, with Aedín Ní Bhróithe Clements, Morrissy co-edited a full, collaborative Irish translation of the pamphlet titled Radacach! Mná agus Réabhlóid na hÉireann. Both books are stocked at The Library Project, the Museum of Literature Ireland, and An Siopa Leabhar.

Poems and photographs by Julie Morrissy
Design by Shauna Buckley

Radical! is digitised at the National Library of Ireland here (Call No: A36252)
Reviewed in the Irish Times here, by Martina Evans
Featured in Cyphers, no. 93, edited by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin

Radacach! is digitised as a free download at MNÁ100 here
Aistriúcháin le/translations by Julie Breathnach-Banwait, Celia de Fréine, Ola Majekodunmi, Caitríona Ní Chléirchín, Ursula Ní Choill, Clíodhna Ní Chorráin, Annemarie Ní Churreáin, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Ciara Ní É, agus Clíona Ní Ríordáin.

Podcast:
Logo by Emma Conway
Intro Music: “Saharakungoh” by Fehdah
Sound and production by Museum of Literature Ireland

This project is supported by the National Library of Ireland, the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, the Decade of Centenaries Programme 2012-2023, and Poetry Ireland.

Episode 1: With Susan Cahill

Dr Susan Cahill joins for a conversation about writer and Cumann na mBan activist Dorothy Macardle. We talk about our own experiences in activism and writing in the context of Ireland’s rich feminist history. Cahill is a writer, editor, academic, and activist. She was the first woman to tell her abortion story on the stage of the Abbey Theatre, which was subsequently published in the Irish Times. A former professor of Irish Studies, Cahill’s debut children’s novel will be published by Everything With Words.

Episode 2: With Alice Rekab

We are joined by Dr Alice Rekab for a conversation about flags and song in the context of their artistic practice. Rekab is an artist, researcher and educator based in Dublin. Their practice is concerned with expressions and iterations of complex cultural and personal narratives. Alice takes their own mixed-race Irish identity as a starting point from which to explore experiences of race, place and belonging. We talk about Rekab’s artwork Truth, Flags, Identity and protest actions by radical women at Liberty Hall following the Rising.

Episode 3: With Seán Hewitt

Seán Hewitt joins for a conversation about his work as Poet-in-Residence at the Irish Queer Archive. We discuss our approaches to using archive materials to make poetry, as well as some of the more difficult things about working with archive, including violence against LGBTQ+ people and the murder of Declan Flynn in 1982. Hewitt’s debut collection of poetry, Tongues of Fire, was published by Jonathan Cape in 2020. His memoir, All Down Darkness Wide, is published by Jonathan Cape (UK) and Penguin Press (US).

Episode 4: Voices of the Archive

In the final episode, Morrissy reflects on her work as Poet-in-Residence and reads from source materials from the archives at the National Library of Ireland. The episode includes excerpts from Dorothy Macardle’s account of Easter Week, published in The Irish Press in 1933, newspaper articles by Lily O’Brennan, and an excerpt from Elizabeth O’Farrell’s account of the surrenders. Morrissy also shares poems from her pamphlet Radical! Women and the Irish Revolution.