An event celebrating the power of music and performance as cultural resistance—with a specific focus on the parallels between Ireland and Algeria—will take place at Mary Immaculate College (MIC) on Friday 30 May.
Members of the public are warmly invited to attend the Performing Resistance Cultures Festival: Algeria Ireland, which will be a day of panel discussions, film screenings and performances. It will also feature a special tribute to late MIC lecturer, Dr Tony Langlois.
Curated by Dr Mairéad Ní Bhriain—Lecturer in French Studies at MIC; Prof. Martin Evans of the University of Sussex; Prof Dónal Hassett of Maynooth University; Dr Aoife Connolly of Technological University Dublin; and Dr Orfhlaith Ní Bhriain of the University of Limerick—the festival brings together Irish and Algerian musicians, artists and academics to reflect on how creative practice can contest dominant narratives and forge cross-cultural connections.
Algerian protest singer, AKLI D. will be a central figure in the festival, collaborating with Irish musicians Niamh Dunne, Dermot Sheedy, Paul Harrigan and Orfhlaith Ní Bhriain. Their work will explore musical commonalities between Ireland and Algeria—especially oral traditions, musical instruments and themes of migration and resistance.
The tribute to the late Dr Tony Langlois—former MIC Media & Communications Studies lecturer and well-known ethnomusicologist—by Dr Desi Wilkinson and Dr Aileen Dillane will take place in the afternoon, including personal reflections and a screening of his short film Tarab El Gharanti.
The day's events will conclude with a live performance by the participating musicians. The venue is Newman Hall—also known as the CRAFT Maker Space—which is on the John Henry Newman campus in the College, accessible from O’Connell Avenue with pedestrian access from the South Circular Road also.
Speaking on behalf of the team of curators, Dr Mairéad Ní Bhriain commented: “It is a pleasure to welcome the launch of this year’s Performing Resistance Cultures Festival to Mary Immaculate College. We are honoured to host such a rich and dynamic programme, featuring internationally acclaimed artists like AKLI D. alongside renowned Irish musicians and performers Niamh Dunne, Paul Harrigan, Dermot Sheedy and Orfhlaith Ní Bhriain. The festival offers an important space for creative dialogue on music, memory and resistance, and it’s especially meaningful for us to celebrate this work here in MIC, where collaboration across disciplines is so strongly valued. We’re also deeply proud to honour the legacy of our much-missed colleague, Dr Tony Langlois, whose passion for ethnomusicology and cultural exchange continues to inspire this project.”
The programme features numerous MIC academic staff from both the Arts and Education faculties including Dr Rosemary Day, Dr Michael Finneran, Dr Ailbhe Kenny and Dr Richard McMahon with conversations on storytelling, performance and creative inquiry across disciplines. Other expert speakers include Sarah El Hamed, Nadja Makhlouf Tommy Fegan and Orfhlaith Ní Bhriain.
The Limerick event is part of the interdisciplinary three-year-ICTS project Trajectories of belonging: Creative (hi)stories, spaces and futures of migration funded by the MIC Research & Graduate School, and hosted by the Irish Centre for Transnational Studies.
The festival concludes in Dublin on Monday 2 June at The Sugar Club with screenings by Sarah El Hamed and Nadja Makhlouf on Algerian female resistance, a discussion on the oral traditions of Irish women and Traveller musicians and a final concert featuring AKLI D. and guests.
This marks the third chapter of the festival, which is an ongoing collaborative project between Dr Ní Bhriain from MIC and Prof. Evans, examining points of comparison between the historical and cultural narratives of Algeria and Ireland. The first was in 2022 marking the 100th anniversary of the partition of Ireland and the foundation of the Irish State, and the 60th anniversary of the independence of Algeria while the second sheds light on women’s resistance movements in both countries.
The organisers gratefully acknowledge the support of the Algerian Embassy in Ireland, MIC, the University of Sussex and the University of Limerick, whose contributions have helped make the Performing Resistance Cultures Festival possible.
Na múrtha fáilte romhaibh chuig an ócáid seo, mar a mbedih ceol, cultúr, comhrá agus comóradh.
The full programme of the MIC Limerick festival day can be found here.
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