Queer Ireland is a panel discussion about the journeys of the panelists and Ireland's influence on them
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Craic Fest in association with New York Irish Center
Presents
Queer Ireland
A conversation on how Ireland has inspired our panelists on their LGBTQ+ journeys
MODERATOR
Siobhan Ni Chiobhain
Siobhán Ní Chiobháin (She / Her, Sí/ Í) is an award-winning Creative Content Producer and Brand-Builder from Ireland. She has produced TV and Radio programming for BBC, UTV, RTÉ, TG4, Raidio na Gaeltachta, among others. She has directed documentaries and digital content for BBC, TG4, Irish Times and UTV. She was selected as a ‘One to Watch’ by the prestigious Guardian Edinburgh International TV Festival in 2014. In 2019, she was selected as one of The Irish Echo's Top 40 Under 40. She also won The Irish Echo's People's Choice Award. She is a proud Gaeilgeoir and is co-founder of Gaeil Nua Eabhrac, a group that organizes Irish Language events in NYC.
PANELISTS:
Joseph Jones
Originally from Belfast and have been living in New York for 5 years, Joseph is an actor, model and Creative Ambassador for a non-profit with victims of conflict/terrorism. A graduate of the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. He has walked runways in New York, Paris and London. He is a proud Gaeilgeoir; teaching at the Irish Arts Center in Manhattan, now working with Bloc TG4 and recent contributor/interviewee on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta, RTÉ 2fm, BBC Gaeilge etc.
Marlow Murphy
Marlow Méabh Murphy is a writer in Brooklyn and an amateur student of Irish culture. Her father's ancestors originally came from the Murphys of Wexford and emigrated from the County Clare townland of Kinturk during the Great Famine. Her mother's father is descended from the Kanes of Ulster. As a child of the Diaspóra na nGael, she has worked to restore her connection to the culture of Ireland by studying Irish language and folklore. Marlow is transgender and has professional and volunteer experience in LGBTQ advocacy and events. Her pronouns are she or they in English and sí or siad in Irish.
Mícheál Curtin
Mícheál Curtin (he/him, sé/é) is an Irish speaker, drama facilitator, and educator from Brooklyn, NY. He currently directs a drama-in-education program at the CUNY Creative Arts Team. Previously, Mícheál co-directed the Queer Youth Theatre with LGBTQIA+ young people at The Door, a youth center in Manhattan. He has worked with education students in Rwanda, with incarcerated young people on Rikers Island and with multigenerational neighborhood communities in Brooklyn. In Ireland, Mícheál has led periodic projects using drama as a teaching tool in schools to support Irish language aquisition. He has also facilitated bilingual community meetings in the Gaeltacht with Údarás na Gaeltachta. Mícheál learned his Irish between New York and Ireland over the past few years. He is passionate about languages, particularly the ways in which language can connect people to their past and begin to heal the wounds of colonialism. Mícheál lives in Brooklyn with his husband Sheldon.
Seán Ó hAodha (He/Him), Deputy Consul General of Ireland in New York.
Seán previously worked in the Humanitarian Unit of Irish Aid, which administers the Irish Government’s humanitarian aid budget, leading on humanitarian policy, the Red Cross and Western, Central and Southern Africa. Prior to this he covered humanitarian and global health issues at the Irish Permanent Mission to the UN in Geneva. Previous assignments within the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs include Addis Ababa and Brussels. Originally from Dublin, Seán lives in Hell’s Kitchen with his husband, Sebastiaan.
Yvonne Cassidy
Yvonne Cassidy was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland and moved to New York in 2011. She is the author of four novels published by Hachette: The Other Boy, What Might Have Been Me, How Many Letters Are In Goodbye? and I’m Right Here. In addition to being published widely in Europe, How Many Letters Are In Goodbye? was published in the U.S. by Llewellyn YA imprint Flux and was selected for the American Library Association “Rainbow Book List” in 2017. Her personal essay Tuesdays was published in Grabbed, an anthology on sexual assault, empowerment and healing published in 2020. She has taught creative writing extensively and currently teaches for the Irish Arts Center and the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan. She lives on the Upper West Side with her wife Danielle. She is currently working on her fifth novel.