“ I will tell you what I will do and what I will not do. I will not serve that in which I no longer believe, whether it calls itself my home, my fatherland, or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defense the only arms I allow myself to use - silence, exile, and cunning .” James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
James Joyce’s words describe the tools he believed writers need to defend themselves against repression. Together Fionnula Flanagan ( who played Nora Barnacle in the movie James Joyce’s Women ); musician, singer and songwriter Larry Beau, and Patrick McCabe (author of The Butcher Boy and Goldengrove among others) present an evening of music and conversation exploring the power of words to open up avenues to freedom of thought and expression.
Fionnula Flanagan is an Irish actor whose recent screen credits include The Young Offenders , Small Town, Big Story and Bodkin , alongside films such as The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes and Some Mother’s Son . A Tony Award nominee for The Ferryman and Ulysses Of Night Town , she is a Lifetime Achievement recipient at the IFTAs and originated Maggie in Brian Friel’s Lovers at the Gate Theatre.
Larry Beau is an Irish songwriter and folk artist described by METRO as “a starry-eyed amalgam of Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney and a wandering Irish minstrel.” His forthcoming album, The Folk Saloon , gathers songs written over a decade of travels across Ireland, Europe and the United States.
Patrick McCabe is a novelist and playwright from County Monaghan, best known for works including The Butcher Boy , Breakfast on Pluto and The Dead School , with film adaptations directed by Neil Jordan. A member of Aosdána, he continues to write for stage and screen, with recent work including a MoLI installation on Brendan Behan and a forthcoming novel, Home Entertainment .
Presented in partnership with IPUT Real Estate.