Said The Dead

‘In Cork city, a derelict mental hospital is being converted into modern apartments. One passerby has always flinched as she passes the place. Had her birth occurred in another decade, she too might have lived within those walls. Now, she notices a sign: FOR SALE. It is the first of many signs. Following them, she finds herself drawn into an irresistible river of forgotten voices, those of the women who knew this place best: insistent, vivid and true. They murmur from archives and old records; they whisper from stairwells and walls. Among them – and in one figure in particular — she may find meaning, solace, rage; her own salvation, perhaps, or her own vanishing?’

Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s writing leaps between genres and times, to explore how the past makes itself felt within the present. Her book A Ghost in the Throat went on to be translated into 20 languages, was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and won the James Tait Black Prize.

Linda Buckley is an award winning Irish composer (born in Cork) with a particular interest in working across many disciplines. Most notably film and in the realm of drone and dark ambient music. She was featured by Iggy Pop on BBC Radio 6 as “somebody really special”. She has written extensively for orchestra (BBC Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ NSO), was elected to Aosdána in 2021, and is Associate Artist with Chamber Music Scotland.

Literature programme supported by Cork Midsummer Festival and University College Cork – partnering to create a unique strand of events that feature cross artform collaborations, performance and conversation