St Brigid's Day 2023 at Embassy of Ireland, Great Britain
Event
20 January 2023
St Brigid's Day 2023 at Embassy of Ireland, Great Britain
The Embassy’s 6th annual St. Brigid’s Day event takes place on 1st February.
The event will be a celebration of the great contributions, talents, and creativity of women across many different fields, including music, literature, art, diversity and inclusion, peacebuilding, poetry as well as politics, science, film, comedy, architecture, fashion, history, and business.
We will be led by our MC Niamh Branigan, and guests will enjoy performances from Pillow Queens and AIS, and a spoken word performance from Eva O'Connor.
The evening will also feature panel discussions on Women in Diversity and Inclusion, Literature, and Peace, a portrait exhibition, and a menu from female food and beverage producers from across the island of Ireland.
Irish Cultural and Community organisations across London and beyond are again also marking the occasion. Events include:
- 28th January: The Luton Irish Forum are hosting 'Afternoon Tea celebrating Irish Women in the NHS'
- 1st February: What Would Brigid Do? St. Brigids Day event at the Consulate General of Ireland, Cardiff
- 3rd February: St Brigid’s Day Gala Event at the London Irish Centre
- 3rd - 5th February: Irish Film London's St Brigid's Day Film Festival
- 4th February: St Brigid’s Day Concert Featuring Sharon Shannon at the Irish Cultural Centre Hammersmith
- 4th February: The Irish Arts Foundation in Leeds are hosting a St Brigid's Day Traditional Irish Music Afternoon.
MC, Panellists, Performers and Artists
MC: Niamh Branigan
Niamh Branigan is an Irish actress who has appeared on Fair City, along with treading the boards of the Gate Theatre Dublin in Roddy Doyle’s ‘The Snapper', playing Yvonne Burgees for two consecutive summers. Since then she has written and starred in a short film called ‘Ready?’ acting alongside Simon Delaney. This short was directed and produced by Alfonso Films, an all-female company who are growing from strength to strength. It has successfully travelled to many festivals, including The Galway Film Fleadh, Kerry International Film Festival, Irish Film Festival London and will be going to The Chicago and The Toronto Irish Film Festival soon. Niamh has worked for Irish Film London for many years, hosting their podcast, presenting their awards and leading panels during their annual festival.
Performer: AIS
AIS is a singer-songwriter from Dublin. She released her EP entitled Freedom, and performed her song ‘Freedom’ with The National Symphony Orchestra as well as performing on The Late Late Show. AIS performed on the mainstage at Forest Fest and is gaining many fans in Ireland and the UK.
She has just released her first collaboration called ‘Spacebound’ featuring Craig Cooney which is an honest account about mental health and the times where you feel you just need your space.
AIS’s music combines elements of Pop, Soul, and R&B to create uniquely catchy and relatable songs. Her song-writing inspirations stem from growing up bi-racial in a predominantly white society, self-love and being true to oneself.
Performer: Eva O'Connor
Eva O'Connor is a writer, performer from Ogonnelloe, Co Clare. She makes work for stage screen and radio. She runs award winning theatre company Sunday's Child with director Hilgegard Ryan.
Eva's one-woman stage play MUSTARD, produced by Fishamble: The New Play Company, is currently touring and will be in Adelaide. Australia from the 15th Feb- 19th March supported by Culture Ireland. MUSTARD was also recently adapted for TV for RTÉ, and broadcast part of the Storyland initiative. It is available to view on RTÉ player.
Performer: Pillow Queens
Pillow Queens are a 4-piece indie rock band based in Dublin comprising Pamela Connolly, Sarah Corcoran, Cathy McGuinness, and Rachel Lyons. The band have recently played an Irish tour with two sold out Vicar Street shows off the back of a successful campaign for their sophomore album Leave the Light On, and have played to crowds across North America, Europe, and the UK, over what has been a busy yet fruitful 2022. They have recently received a second RTE Choice Album of the Year nomination for Leave the Light On and are currently in the process of writing album three.
Women and Diversity and Inclusion Panel
Andrea Dermody (Host)
Andrea Dermody has over 20 years-experience working across global financial services. Most recently Andrea led inclusion and diversity for State Street in EMEA with responsibility for fourteen European locations and 12,000 employees. She is now managing director of her own consulting practice, Dermody. Since 2021, she has been the Programme Director for, Balance for Better Balance, a joint Irish Government and business initiative striving to promote gender balance at board and executive leadership level. Andrea holds a PhD in Business Studies and a MSc in Human Resource Development. She has also completed a course in Black Studies with the Institute of Antiracism and Black Studies. Andrea led the 30% Club in Ireland’s pivotal research project, “Making the Change Count”, working to drive gender diversity and she was a founding member of the steering committee for OUTstanding in Ireland, driving LGBT+ inclusion. She is an adjunct lecturer in DCU Business School.
Shiarra Bell
Shiarra Bell was born in Ireland to an Irish mother and an Indian South African father. She went to school in Dublin and later studied Psychology at university before moving to London to work in the music industry. She spent 10 years in music management where she worked with artists including All Saints, Bewitched and The Sugababes.
Shiarra joined Polydor Records in 2006 as an Artist Relations Assistant, swiftly moving up to Head of Artist Relations at the label. She is currently Head of Artist Relations Events and Talent for Universal Music UK. She is married with two children and lives in North London.
Sara Philips
Sara R Phillips is a trans activist working globally. She has been involved with trans activism for over 30 years. She is the former Chair of the Board of Directors of Ireland's national trans organisation, Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI), serving 10 years in that position. Sara was one of the lead negotiators to the Gender Recognition Act 2015 and served on the Governmental review of the act in 2018. Sara is a board member of the National Women's Council of Ireland, the Co-Chair of the International Trans Fund in Toronto and treasurer of Transgender Europe in Berlin. In November 2022 year, Sara was honoured with the James Joyce Award by UCD’s Literary and Historical Society. She is the founder, researcher and archivist of the Irish Trans Archive. Sara is currently the National Manager in Ireland for multinational construction materials manufacturer CPG-Europe.
Siobhán McKenna
Siobhán is the Head of ED&I at the Public Appointments Service, Ireland’s centralised provider of recruitment services across the civil and public service.
Prior to this role, Siobhán spent 20 years in the non-profit and public sectors in London, initially working at the Open Society Institute supporting the global fight against HIV and AIDS. In 2009 she joined City Hall where she held several roles including Senior Social Policy Advisor to the Mayor and Senior Programme Manager at London’s Violence Reduction Unit. Siobhán also led the work on improving the representation of women in leadership roles in City Hall, developing a positive action sponsorship programme for women, and helping to reduce City Hall’s gender pay gap in 2021 to less than 1%.
Siobhán holds a degree in International Social Science from UCD and an MPhil in Ethnic & Racial Studies from Trinity College Dublin.
Women and Literature for young readers Panel
Elaina Ryan (Host)
Elaina Ryan is CEO of Children’s Books Ireland, a charity and arts organisation whose vision is ‘every child a reader’. Her background is in publishing: a graduate of the MLitt in Publishing at University of Stirling, Elaina was Managing Editor of Little Island Books, where she worked closely with Ireland's inaugural Laureate na nÓg, Siobhán Parkinson, until 2013. She is co-Artistic Director, with Niamh Sharkey, of Towers and Tales Children’s Books Festival in Lismore, County Waterford. For the past three years she has featured in The Bookseller 150, an annual list of the 150 most influential people in UK and Irish publishing.
Lauren O’Hara
Lauren O’Hara is a Dublin-based illustrator originally from the North of England. She collaborates with her writer sister Natalia, and together they have been published by Penguin Random House, Macmillan, and Walker Books.
Lauren has twice been nominated for the CILIP Kate Greenaway award for Hortense and the Shadow, written by Natalia O’Hara (2018) and Madame Badobedah, (2020) with author Sophie Dahl.
Frindleswylde, written by Natalia O’Hara was recipient of the 2022 Illustration Honour Award from KPMG Children’s Books Ireland. She has also illustrated books with Vivian French at Walker Books, and collaborated on a book with The Royal Opera House, published by Thames and Hudson.
Catherine Doyle
Catherine Doyle is the best-selling, award-winning author of several children’s and YA books. Her work has been published in over 25 languages, and is often inspired by Irish culture, including the wild landscape of the west and the Celtic legends she loved as a child.
Her Storm Keeper trilogy is set on the magical island of Arranmore, where her grandparents grew up. Her modern re-imagining of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, The Miracle on Ebenezer Street, takes place in a snow-swept, enchanted London. Her most recent children’s novel, The Lost Girl King, follows modern-day siblings Amy and Liam as they accidentally tumble into the mythical land of Tír na nÓg. Catherine also writes the bestselling YA series, Twin Crowns, with her sister-in-law, Katherine Webber.
A Galway native, Catherine lives in the west of Ireland with her husband Jack and their dog Cali.
Sheena Dempsey
Sheena Dempsey is an award-winning children's book illustrator from Cork, Ireland.
She has illustrated over thirty books for children since 2010 with publishers such as Walker Books, Bloomsbury, Faber, Simon and Schuster and Andersen Press. Titles include Bad Panda, Dave Pigeon, Mermaid School, Yoga Babies and Hungry Babies. For the Irish market she has illustrated three of Niall Breslin's best-selling picture books, The Magic Moment, Take Five and The Sleep Scan, published by Gill. She has twice been awarded a Literature Bursary Award by Arts Council Ireland. She lives in Folkestone, Kent with her husband Mick and their greyhound Jeremy.
Áine Ní Ghlinn
Áine Ní Ghlinn is the sixth Laureate na nÓg (Ireland’s Children’s Literature Laureate). She is the first author writing exclusively in the Irish language to be appointed to the role. Áine has written more than thirty books for all age groups, including poetry, fiction, and drama. Her ambition as Laureate is to lift the cloak of invisibility from Irish language authors and books, encouraging children and young people to read for pleasure as Gaeilge.
Women and Peace Panel
Aingeal O’Donoghue (Host)
Ambassador O'Donoghue was the first woman ambassador of Ireland to the Republic of Korea, taking up the post in August 2013. More recently she served as Director General of the European Union Division in the Department of Foreign Affairs. She is currently on secondment to the Department of the Taoiseach where she has responsibility for Northern Ireland and British Irish affairs and the Shared Island Initiative.
From 2008-2013 she served as Institutions Counsellor at the Permanent Representation of Ireland to the EU, with a major focus of her work on Ireland’s EU Presidency in the first half of 2013. Previously as head of the North/South Section in the Department’s Anglo Irish Division she worked on various aspects of the Northern Ireland peace process including the development of North/South cooperation on the island of Ireland.
Eileen Weir
Eileen is a community development practitioner with extensive experience in building community capacity and supporting community cohesion and strategic community development. She has been involved in community development practice for most of her working life, with the aim of empowering communities to identify their needs and to be pro-active in addressing these needs. By using this approach, a sense of ownership is secured.
She is currently employed by Shankill Women’s Centre as the Greater North Belfast Women’s Network Co-Ordinator.
Eileen’s unbiased approach has helped her to reach out to various communities and build relationships and networks throughout the island of Ireland.
In 2018 Eileen received two prestigious awards the first presented by CRC Community Relations Council “Exceptional Achievement Award” and the second the “McCluskey Civil Rights Award” for her role in Human Rights, Civil Rights and Peace Building activities.
Anne Carr
Throughout the 1990s Anne was Co-ordinator of the Women Together organisation, actively involved with women in communities in Northern Ireland, challenging violence and supporting cross community engagement through these most difficult years.
In 1997 she was part of the diverse group of community activists that created the Community Dialogue organisation and her work with CD continues today, creating safe enough spaces to allow diverse voices to be heard and difficult conversations to take place.
Anne was a founder parent of All Children’s Integrated Primary School, Newcastle, Co. Down, the first integrated primary outside Belfast and chaired the Board of Governors for many years. She was the first Local Councillor elected for the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition in 1997 and part of the team that helped to secure the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement.
In 2008 she received the Community Relations Council Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Community Relations.
Susan McCrory
Susan has been a part of Falls Women’s Centre since 1991 and is currently the Managing Director. She is mother to five children and has been involved in community development, working within West Belfast on issues that affected the lives of women, for many years.
One of her main interests is adult education. Through her experience of community based education she gained a BA Hons. in Community Development from the University of Ulster. Today she advocates for community education within a women’s centre where childcare and support can be provided. She strongly believes in women helping and supporting each other.
At Falls Women’s Centre she has helped ensure that women are part of the peace process, recognising the importance of women, most affected by the conflict, from both communities coming together to discuss dealing with the past, understanding the conflict and seeking ways towards a shared, equal and peaceful future for all.
Artist
FRIZ – Peace Heroines Artist
Photo credit: Steve O'Connor
The Peace Heroines exhibition, comprising nine portraits by the visual artist FRIZ currently hang in the Embassy building.
Following an open call in 2021, visual artist FRIZ was commissioned by Herstory to create a series of portraits that capture the dynamism, bravery and legacy of the remarkable peace activists of Northern Ireland.
FRIZ is known for her work exploring history, myths and the folklore that shapes the cultural identity of a place. Using these stories, she creates a journey of discovery for people as they reconnect with some of their earliest and formative memories. The medium of murals allow these stories to be presented as part of the fabric of a place to new generations.
FRIZ’s work leans towards presenting powerful female characters and explores our connection with the natural world. Sometimes it is a mirror, sometimes an aspiration. It is often a study in who we are; where we come from and our connection to the natural world. For the Peace Heroines exhibition, she sought to create loud, colourful artwork, artwork that demands space, much like the women portrayed within the canvas.
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Embassy London is delighted to be celebrating female food and beverage producers as part of its St. Brigid’s Day menu and prize hampers, with thanks to Bord Bia and Food NI. Featuring 25 producers including:
Burren Smokehouse, Abernathy Butter, McCambridge’s, Crawford’s Rock Seaweed Co., Goatsbridge Rainbow Trout Farm, Islander: Rathlin Kelp, Ardsallagh Goat Farm, Foods of Athenry, Lecale Harvest, Saint Tola Farmhouse Cheese, Burren Balsamics, Baronscourt Estate, Lo & Slo, Clonakilty, Ballymaloe Foods, Mash Direct, Silver Hill Duck, Pheasants Hill Farm, Erin Grove Preserves, Melting Pot Fudge, The Chocolate Manor, Basalt Distillery Gin, Shortcross Gin, Long Meadow Cider and Moocha Kombucha.
The evening’s celebration will also feature a number of fantastic prizes with thanks to Into Kildare, Tourism Ireland, Bord Bia, Food NI and Enterprise Ireland. The top prize from Into Kildare, the County Kildare Tourism Board, is a luxury break including; 5-night's accommodation with breakfast and dinner at Kilkea Castle, Kilashee Hotel and Berberstown Castle and return flights from London to Dublin for 2 people provided by Tourism Ireland.
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