Online Zoom Discussion
Wednesday, February 16 at 2pm EST
With Catherine Conlon, Aideen Kane, Ciara Ní Chuirc, and more
This spring, Irish Rep is proud to present the world premiere of Ciara Ní Chuirc’s Made by God. This new play explores the true story of the tragic death of Ann Lovett and her newborn son in an Irish grotto in 1984 through the lens of a 2018 visit by an American podcaster. To further engage with the play’s context, Irish Rep will host a panel discussion exploring the sociocultural climate in Ireland in 1984 – just one year after the adoption of the landmark 8th Amendment, which deemed the right to life of an “unborn” equal to the life of a pregnant woman – and the change in public attitude that, over time, led to the 2018 referendum that repealed the 8th Amendment. Documentary filmmaker Aideen Kane will be joined by Catherine Conlon (Asst. Prof of Social Policy at Trinity College Dublin) and playwright Ciara Ní Chuirc in a Zoom discussion that focuses on this history, Ciara Ní Chuirc’s artistic response, and the relation to current issues in the US.
This Zoom discussion is open to the public and is free, however, registration is required.
Aideen Kane
Aideen Kane is the Vice President of Production at Fork Films. Aideen oversees all Fork Films original productions from development through delivery. She recently co-produced and co-directed The 8th, the story of how Ireland overturned one of the world’s most restrictive abortion laws. With Abigail Disney and Kathleen Hughes, Aideen produced The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales which premiered in January at the Sundance Film Festival. She co-produced Women in Blue (dir Deirdre Fishel) with Beth Levison. Previous credits include Emmy-winning and nominated, feature-length and television documentaries, including The Armor of Light (dirs. Abigail Disney & Kathleen Hughes), The Trials of Spring (dir. Gini Reticker), The Awful Truth (dir. Michael Moore), Face to Face: The Schappell Twins (dir. Ellen Weissbrod), and Voices of the Children (dir. Zuzana Justman). In Ireland, she produced several award-winning documentaries and documentary series for public television and is a producer on the international theatrical hit Alone it Stands by John Breen.
Ciara Ní Chuirc
Ciara is an Irish writer and a member of Elephant Run District theatre company in New York City. Her work has been performed in the Samuel Beckett Theatre and Project Arts Centre (Dublin); Theatre Exile (Philadelphia); The Kennedy Center (Washington, DC); and The Tank, Irish Arts Center, Schapiro Theatre, Kraine Theater, and the Studio Theater (NYC). She was selected as an emerging playwright by the Stewart Parker Trust and by Play On (Dublin Theatre Festival). Her plays have been developed with Theatre Exile and The University of the Arts (Philadelphia); Fishamble Theatre Company and Dublin Theatre Festival (Dublin); and Elephant Run District Theatre Company (New York). She was a 2018 finalist and 2020 semifinalist for the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. She has an MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University.
Dr. Catherine Conlon
Dr Catherine Conlon Catherine is Assistant Professor in Social Policy at the School of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College Dublin. Her research focuses on the social politics of reproduction and its effects regarding bodily autonomy, formations of families and gendered ordering of roles and relations as well as on critical qualitative methodologies. She has a strong track record of applied policy research including for the HSE Crisis Pregnancy Programme/Crisis Pregnancy Agency, the Equality Authority and the Combat Poverty Agency. She co-authored, with Evelyn Mahon and Lucy Dillon, Women and Crisis Pregnancy published by Government Publications in 1998. She publishes in high impact peer reviewed academic journals including Qualitative Research (IF: 3.14), Qualitative Health Research (IF: 3.0) and Gender & Society (IF: 2.8). She co-edited (with Aideen Quilty and Sinead Kennedy) The Abortion Papers Ireland Volume Two published by Cork University Press in 2015. An interest in innovative translation of applied policy research led to a translation of her PhD research on women concealing pregnancy into an Opera performance in collaboration with colleagues in Music and English entitled ‘The Pregnant Box’. Her current research focuses on women’s experiences of using the unplanned pregnancy and abortion care services commissioned by the HSE Sexual Health and Crisis Pregnancy Programme which will inform the forthcoming legislative review of law regulating abortion in Ireland during 2021/22