The audience at the Lodge on Sunday night (22nd February 2026) were spellbound by the powerful storytelling and music of Liz Weir, Anne Harper and Vicky McFarland. The performance was a compelling collection of stories exploring female experience and our complex relationship with the Land. At the end of the evening, there was a discussion about the stories and the issues they raised.
The opening was described as “very evocative,” with one audience member recalling the powerful line: “You know me by many names – from Brigid, Macha, Mother, Maeve, Ériu and Morrígan.” This was accompanied by Anne playing the harp, while scenes of nature were projected, creating an atmospheric beginning.
“I loved the way the character’s voice highlighted the destructive relationship we have with the land and how we need to protect it, with images of our countryside,” one attendee commented. Anne agreed and said that ‘our relationship with the Land is about commodification – how we constantly want to turn it or use it for something and this is a theme we wished to explore’.
When asked how they chose the stories, Liz Weir explained that they selected tales they personally loved, including the story of the Selkie who comes out of the water as a seal and casts off her sealskin to become human. Unable to find her skin again, she cannot return to the sea. In the story, she tries on many other “skins” – fiancée, wife, mother – and different roles in work and life. “Isn’t that what we all do, but the morale of the story is never leave your skin unguarded” Liz said.
Anne shared that she was fascinated by keening, the traditional form of vocal lament for the dead. Historically, women were hired to keen at the graveside, a tradition that has died out. One audience member felt that Anne’s clarinet piece was deeply evocative of keening sounds. “It reminded me of the Arabic tradition of ululation, their vocal expression of grief,” they said.
“Women have always supported women,” Vicky reflected, introducing the powerful story of the Curse of Macha. The tale tells of Macha’s husband boasting that she could run faster than any horse. Despite being heavily pregnant with twins, she was summoned by the King to prove it and forced to race – giving birth to her twins at the end. The curse is a reckoning for public humiliation, a response to the violence of spectacle, and a challenge to the unchecked power of kings – but it relates to consequences and how our care of the Earth, or lack of it, also has consequences’.
Mary McAnulty concluded the evening by thanking the performers and saying it had been “inspiring to hear so many stories that are part of our heritage and to reflect on how we must continue to protect Mother Earth.”
This is part of Dolmens Climate Action Networks programme which is supported by PEACE PLUS, managed by the Special EU Programmes Body and facilitated by the County Down Rural Community Network.