The love that killed tragic Bridie Kirk

"The past is never dead," wrote William Faulkner. "It’s not even past." Between Trees and Water, a new show by Cork theatre company, Painted Bird, is convinced of this stubborn relevance of the past to the present.

The play relates the true story of Bridie Kirk, a young Cork woman who died of poisoning during an illegal abortion in 1939. Conceived by director Fiona McGeown, with numerous collaborators, including the composer, Tom Lane, and dramaturg, Thomas Conway, the play runs in the Unitarian Church, Cork, in early September, before transferring to the Dublin Fringe Festival.

“We are sticking to the facts,” says McGeown. “We’re not fabricating anything. The characters were real people and we’re engaging with the statements that they made themselves, whether they’re family members, Gardaí officers, the state pathologist, or the two people who were charged with Bridie’s murder, her lover, John Daly, and Ellen Anthony, an off-duty nurse who was accused of administering the drug. For us, it’s about presenting the facts of the case.”