Karan Casey: 'You've all these women artists being sidelined and hushed up'
Karan Casey's show, The Women - We Will Rise, is on at the Everyman as part of Cork Folk Festival. Picture: Clare Keogh
The women behind the War of Independence will emerge from the shadows and have their voices heard thanks to a new play written by folk singer Karan Casey.
The show, The Women, We Will Rise, has been 10 years in the making as the idea began to form in Casey’s mind when she was invited to sing at the unveiling of a plaque dedicated to her great grandfather, Pakie Ryan of the hotel in 2016 – the beginning of our decade of centenaries.
This occasion got her thinking about Pakie and also his wife, Agnes, whom Casey knew little about. This spark of curiosity led to her search to uncover her great grandmother’s story.
Agnes, who was a mother of 12, ran businesses, was a member of Cumann na mBan and was even awarded a service medal, Casey learned.
Her granduncle Jacko and his wife, Assumpta, were invaluable in helping Casey to learn more about her great grandmother, she says.
“I was up with them a lot in Doon, Co Limerick,” says Casey. “They still have the house where a bullet fired 100 years ago remains lodged in the back wall to this day.” In researching her own family’s history, Casey learned about other women of the time who were deeply involved in shaping the revolutionary period such as Kathleen Clarke from Limerick and Countess Markievicz.
These extraordinary women – some well-known names and others less familiar – had done so much for this country and yet who is making sure their story lives on?
“I am thrilled to give voice to these gallant women,” Casey says ahead of the show’s premiere which will be part of Cork Folk Festival.
Perhaps harder than writing the songs for the theatrical performance was whittling them down.
“They all deserve a suite of songs, a concerto,” she laughs as she describes the process of picking one event or part of each woman’s life to include. “Whichever event sort of sang itself off the pages then, I stuck with those.”
For many it would seem a daunting task to take on the lives of these extraordinary women. To try to build up a picture of what their lives were like, understand how they felt and what they were grappling with as women of that time in Irish history.
But throughout her 25-plus year career, Casey has placed women at the centre of her work, repositioning their narrative, and this show will be no different.
Her dedication to social justice extends beyond the stage as Casey helped to found FairPlé, an organisation which aims to achieve fairness and gender balance for female performers in Irish traditional and folk music.
The Women, We Will Rise looks at where we have come from in terms of gender equality but serves as a reminder of how far we still need to go.
One of the things that struck the Cork-based singer about the women she was writing about was their spirit, their passion and their determination.
“I think one of the extraordinary things is how they persevered. They kept going even when they were really pushed back in 1923, particularly by Cosgrave and Kevin O’Higgins. It was desperate,” says Casey.
Despite this, women from all across the country, from different classes and religions, came together to work for the good of their country. “I like that camaraderie and I like that activism. And I like the way so many artists really fuelled that in Ireland.”
Bringing their stories to life on the stage is a fitting way to keep their spirits alive and is something the critically acclaimed singer-songwriter is rightfully proud of.
“You have got all these women artists being sidelined and hushed up and dismissed. But it is good that we are getting to hear about them. We are trying to give them a voice now.” In fact, she would love to be able to take the show on tour following its Cork run.
“I would really love to bring this around Ireland because one of the ideas I actually had was asking people wherever the show goes to write a song about a woman in their area that they know of from whatever walk of life and then to sing that song as well,” she says, her passion for the subject bursting through.
“I just feel like there are so many stories. It’s such a rich vein of Irish history and it’s so important for us to know it.”
- The Women, We Will Rise will be on in the Everyman Theatre as part of the Cork Folk Festival from September 27 – 30. Preview: Wednesday, September 27. Post-show talk: September 28. Matinee performance September 30. See www.corkfolkfestival.com
