ON RELIGION - TUESDAY 27TH APRIL 6 PM

There will be a staged reading of the play ‘On Religion’ by A.C. Grayling and Mick Gordon in the Church on Tuesday 27th of April at 6 p.m.

This is a fascinating, profound, funny and moving play which explores the issues of faith and religion through the lives of a contemporary family.

The authors had conversations with people such as Richard Dawkins, Rowan Williams, Julia Neuberger and Tariq Ramadan whilst working on it, so be prepared to be challenged!

Directed by Denis Conway, the cast is Doireann Ní Bhriain, Emma Colohan, David Heap and Will O’Connell. The reading will last an hour and a half.

Admission Free!

Acclaimed singer guitarist Sarah McQuaid http://www.sarahmcquaid.com/ will give the final concert of her Irish tour in the church on Sunday evening 18th April. Sarah attended the Stephen's Green church for many years before she and her family moved to Cornwall. She's recently returned from a successful tour of the US.

NOTE: Doors open at 7.10 for 7.30 start. In order to get a 2 Euro discount please email Kevin Robinson at pigsmayfly@eircom.net giving your name and the number of tickets you wish to reserve. There's a free glass of wine included the 12 Euro price

If you're not familiar with her music, visit her excellent website and play a track or two. Here's an extract from one of the many positive reviews she received for her last album:

Born in Madrid, the daughter of a Spanish father and American mother, raised in Chicago she spent many years in Ireland before bedding down in Penzance last year with her family. The album is dedicated to the memory of her mother, (“she had a lovely natural style of singing and playing guitar”) who, though she never performed professionally, was obviously a formative influence, acquainting Sarah with the music of Jean Ritchie, Peggy Seeger and other singers and collectors. Whilst describing herself as a singer-writer, there is enough Trad.arr. material here to engage the most ardent devotees of careworn women, relationship betrayal, and heavenly homes and if you’ve a penchant for exhaustive and scholarly booklet notes, you’ve got them – 24 pages in all!

From rolling-sky soundtracks (East Virginia) to the snow-soft poignancy of Last Song for her late mother, McQuaid displays an elegant inventiveness, complemented by the precision of her eloquent backing musicians. With voice and arrangement not unlike Judee Sill’s on J.K. Alwood’s Uncloudy Day alongside a cover of Ode To Billy Joe that rivals Bobbie Gentry’s sun-dappled, yet menacing ambience, there’s no doubting the breadth of vision in these performances. Her lyrical world may be vulnerable and bittersweet imbued with an ache of loneliness and candid personal reflections, but it’s accessible without being slight. Revealing an honest and undisguised emotion, the effect is of a natural, unselfconscious feel. Sarah McQuaid has poured her heart into this record – but it’s also firmly attached to her sleeve and this is Folk music in every sense. It’s that good.

Clive Pownceby - Living Tradition (Mar, 2009)