Belfast Girls: Ship-set famine drama gets its Irish premiere

Belfast Girls is having its Irish premiere after numerous international productions

The female famine experience has been dramatised in Belfast this week.

Set in 1850, Belfast Girls follows "five fierce young women" as they board a ship bound for Australia.

Confined to the belly of the ship, Belfast Girls follows the characters as they leave famine-torn Ireland in search of a better life.

The play by Jaki McCarrick has been staged internationally but this run marks its Irish premiere, with shows in Dundalk, Belfast, Drogheda and Navan.

The production is presented by An Táin Arts Centre and Quintessence Theatre in association with The Lyric Theatre and The North East Network.

'Eradicating undesirable women'

Playwright McCarrick was inspired to write the play after researching her family ties to the Irish famine.

After searching the internet, the Dundalk native discovered Margaret McCarrick, from her father's birthplace of Sligo, who had left for Australia in 1850.

Margaret, and more than 4,000 young women like her, were transported as part of the Earl Grey Scheme.

The play documents the story of five women sent to Australia as part of the Earl Grey emmigration scheme

Earl Grey was secretary of state for the colonies and the aim of the scheme was to reduce overcrowding in workhouses and provide labour for Australia while reducing a big gender imbalance there.

"They were essentially transported as part of a famine relief scheme, but it was also a way of eradicating undesirable women from Ireland," director Anna Simpson told BBC News NI.

"These women are refugees - they wouldn't have left Ireland if not for the dire conditions."

Carla Foley (left) and Siobahn Kelly portray Sarah-Jane and Molly

Belfast Girls was developed at the National Theatre Studio in London in 2012 and had its US premiere in Chicago in 2015.

Dundalk-based Quintessence Theatre had ambitions to stage the play as far back as 2018 but they have faced several setbacks including the Covid pandemic.

"It's been done around the world but not in Ireland, which is a bit mad," Anna said. "It's been a real honour to be able to tell this story in the country of which it originates."

"She treats this space in the ship as her domain she can kind of control," Donna Anita Nikolaison (left) says of her character, Judith

Belfast Girls has been performed in Australia, Sweden and the United States, but at home the play, and its subject matter, remained largely unknown until now.

"I have to say - I actually feel bad saying this - there was a lot I didn't know," said Carla Foley who has had an "eye-opening" experience playing Sarah-Jane Wiley, an orphan "who has been through a lot of hardships, she's become bitter".

"There was a lot of things that surprised me about the level of depravity that people went through, and it's not that long ago," Carla said.

"It was very shocking to realise all that happened to our ancestors and to feel like we're so separated from that in 2024."

'It's still happening'

Fiona Keenan O'Brien and Leah Rossiter star as "frenemies" Ellen and Hannah

Fiona Keenan O'Brien, who portrays "headstrong survivor" Ellen Clarke, explained that while Belfast Girls is set during the 1800s, it still resonates with a modern audience.

"It's a feminist play dealing with issues like the patriarchy," she said.

"And it kind of reflects to current immigration as well, inflation, homelessness - there's a lot of economic difficulties at the moment.

"A lot of young people are coming out of university, and don't have those opportunities and they're going abroad to places like Australia, so it's still happening."

"I think all the characters have really complex backstories which is great as a cast to get into them," said Leah Rossiter who plays Hannah Gibney - a young Sligo woman whose father sold her into prostitution.

"What feels special about this play is that it's a female writer," she added.

In fact, the entire production involves just one man - producer Paul Hayes - a rarity in the often male-dominated world of theatre.

It's been a refreshing experiencing, according to the cast, with the feminist themes within the play "filtering out into the entire production".

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"To have a play with complex, flawed characters, they're not tokenistic in any way… it's very rare to find a piece where every single female character is fully fleshed out to a deeply believable level," director Anna Simpson said.

"That's kind of the genius of McCarrick's writing."

"Women's history tends to be eradicated a lot of the time, women's stories are just not told," says director Anna Simpson

Belfast Girls had its Irish premiere in Dundalk last week - a homecoming for both the play and the Quintessence Theatre - with audiences seemingly impressed by what they saw.

"I thought they really responded to every moment in the play, whether it was with horror or with laughter at the comedy in it, they were really there with us, they didn't hold back," said Donna Anita Nikolaison.

She plays Judith Noone, an "outspoken, brash" street worker who dishes out tough love after being "beaten down in some ways by life and left withered".

"She gets adopted at a very young age and was brought up in Larne by fishers, so she understands a hard life at sea," Donna continued.

"It's been really lovely exploring women's stories with women's voices in the room," Ms Simpson adds

"She obviously didn't get the opportunities she wanted... but there's another side to her, crying out for knowledge... she's been a fascinating character to play."

The fifth character is the "naïve, optimistic" Molly Durcan, portrayed by Belfast actor Siobhan Kelly, who is excited to be bringing the play to her home city.

"She has secrets, which may or not be revealed throughout the play," Siobhan teased.

The cast of Belfast Girls with director Anna Simpson (right) in The Lyric, Belfast

Belfast Girls is having a four-night run in The Lyric Theatre before travelling to Drogheda and Navan later this month.

Tickets for the production sold out months in advance, sparking discussions about a potential island-wide run of the play.

Meanwhile, Jaki McCarrick has been busy adapting the story into a screenplay.

So, could a Belfast Girls movie be on the cards?

"It would work really well as a film. It's a beautiful blend of being very theatrical and cinematic," Anna replied.

"The hunger is clearly there for the story."