51. Candlelit Late Night
- Concerts
- €16
- Bantry House
- 04/07/2026 - 10:30 pm
I crafted you amid sorrows
New Magdalene Songs
The Magdalene Songs is an ongoing project initiated by Deirdre Brenner to honour the women so gravely mistreated by church and state in Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries by giving voice to their experience. These songs strive to amplify the experience of the women and girls who were sent to the Laundries and encourage further dialogue about responses to historic human rights abuses in Ireland and elsewhere. This is the second edition of the Magdalene songs featured in the Festival featuring a new set of songs including a world premiere by Deirdre McKay. The texts recall enforced slavery, darkness, priestly abuse, loss of family and the impossibility of forgetting. A reviewer of the first edition of this ongoing project wrote: As an artistic project that aimed to give a voice to the voiceless, I’m not sure I can ever recall hearing anything as powerful as this in an Irish context.
CANDLELIT LATE NIGHTS A much-loved series, these late concerts, lasting less than an hour, are a perfect close to the day, with the venues lit by candles and the sun setting, it’s chamber music as it’s truly meant to be heard.
