The Quickening, Deirdre O’Mahony. 
Film Screening.

Bere Island October 21 at 7pm

Quickening poster. Bere Island copy_page-0001

Deirdre O’Mahony, The Quickening. Production Still by Tom Flanagan, 2023

Bringing together urgent conversations, original music and moving image, The Quickening by Deirdre O’ Mahony responds to issues in farming, food production and consumption in the face of the current ecological and climate crises. The lyrics of the libretto were developed with writer Joanna Walshe, drawing on recorded conversations between farmers, scientists and politicians at feasts hosted by O’Mahony for her earlier project Sustainment Experiments. Performed by Irish musicians, and featuring field recordings gathered on farms in the South West, The Quickening presents a polyvocal response to the most urgent questions affecting land and its inhabitants, giving voice to the invisible protagonists that shape our earth’s future.

The culmination of over three years of research, The Quickening was commissioned by The Douglas Hyde Gallery of Contemporary Art where it launched as a titular solo-exhibition in 2024, before touring to community spaces and farms across the South-East of Ireland in the Walls & Halls tour.  

Producers: Georgina Jackson & Éilis Lavelle.  

Music Composition and performance: Michelle Doyle, Branwen Kavanagh, Siobhán Kavanagh, Ultan O’ Brien, and Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin. 

Cinematographer & Drone: Tom Flanagan. Additional Cinematographer: Saskia Vermeulen. Sound Recordist: John Brennan  

Sound Mix: John Brennan Editor and Colourist: Michael Higgins