From Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
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The Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin, has today (24 October 2024) announced the 10 new recipients of the Markievicz Award for 2024.
The Markievicz Award is an important legacy project of the Decade of Centenaries Programme 2012-2023. It is designed to support artists to develop their craft and ultimately produce great art that recognises and commemorates the role of women in the 20th Century and beyond.
Minister Martin said:
“I want to congratulate the 10 new recipients of the Markievicz Award. They join a collective of 52 other artists who have received this award since 2019. The aim of this Award is to support artists from all backgrounds and genres by giving them time to create.
"This is the 6th year of this Award that has been so masterfully administrated and championed by the Arts Council and I want to thank them again for their expertise and dedication as project partners.
“The Markievicz Award is an important legacy of the Decade of Centenaries Programme which concluded in December 2023. The continuation of the Award into the new phase of Commemorations is a response to the significant impact of the Award and the positive feedback and continued interest from the arts community.”
The 10 Awards announced today are to the artists:
Zoe Conway - Traditional Arts
Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh - Traditional Arts
Pea Dinneen - Theatre
Laura Fitzgerald - Visual Arts
Megan Grehan - Literature (English)
Katherine Lyons - Literature (English)
Róisín Stack - Theatre
Emma O'Halloran - Music
Áine NÍ Laoghaire - Theatre
Sinéad Diskin – Theatre
The Markievicz Awards began in 2019. Since 2021, up to 10 artists (either individual artists working alone or in collaboration with others) have been supported each year, up to a value of €25,000 per individual or group. The Award is administered by the Arts Council on behalf of the Minister of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media through the Cultural Institutions and Commemorations Unit.
Sinéad O’Reilly, Director of Combined Arts at the Arts Council, said:
“We are delighted to continue our support of this important initiative in partnership with the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, which offers vital backing to artists throughout Ireland. The bursary honours the trailblazing legacy of Constance de Markievicz, the first woman elected to both the Irish parliament and cabinet. We want to congratulate this year's awardees, and we eagerly anticipate the diverse and innovative works that will come from this year’s artists.”
Minister Martin added:
“It was a great pleasure to meet with the artists that are in receipt of the 2024 Markievicz Award. The arts have commonly been seen as a safe space to view the often complex events of the past. It is particularly fitting that this award in honour of Constance de Markievicz, uses the medium of art to address the overlooked, possibly underappreciated role of women in the revolutionary period and the early years of the establishment of the State.
“I look forward to hearing of the progress of the 2024 Markievicz Award winners and hope that through this Award they have the opportunity to develop their skills and recognise their true potential.”
The Markievicz Award began as an initiative through the Creative Strand of the Decade of Centenaries Programme 2012-2023.
This group of awardees brings the total number of artists funded under the Award to 52, with a full allocation of nearly €1.2 million over the 6 years from 2019-2024.
More information on the award and the projects can be found on the Arts Council website.
Please find below some detail on the artists’ successful proposals which were selected for the awards.
Artist/Awardee Art Form Project/Development
Zoë Conway
Traditional Arts Compose an 18 minute piece for voice in the Irish language, fiddle and symphony orchestra to be performed in summer 2025 based on the work of Irish poet, Máire Mhac an tSaoi, 'Life, Love & Lullabies_Saol, Searc is Suantraí'. Develop skills in writing for orchestra and improve Irish language understanding.
Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh
Traditional Arts Create a body of new songs from the autobiography and stories of Peig Sayers (1873-1958). Write Irish lyrics from her life experiences as a Gaeltacht woman, contemporaneous with Countess Markievicz. Compose airs for the lyrics. Arrange and reproduce the collection of songs.
Pea Dinneen
Theatre Support continued practice exploring the role of transgender women in Ireland. Write a collection of audition monologues for trans women for publication and develop play Cool Suburban Mam for a reading at Dublin Theatre Festival 2025. Mentor early career trans theatre artists.
Laura Fitzgerald
Visual Arts Research the archive of Irish experimental filmmaker, artist, and poet Flora Kerrigan, to produce a series of new films, animations and text works. Work with mentor Dr Sarah Arnold and the Irish Film Institute in order to develop this work. Present this new body of work at Lismore Castle Arts in July 2025.
Megan Grehan
Literature (English) Research and develop a creative non-fiction book, written in verse to explore the ‘hauntedness’ of Irish women- all they can achieve and have achieved, despite or because of that which haunts. To research forgotten Irish women, starting with Dorothy Macardle, to forge a path between us.
Katherine Betsy Lyons
Literature (English) Complete a memoir about a historic knitting factory in Connemara. Conduct research and interviews with the women who worked there. Examine themes of women’s financial independence and control in both early-mid 20th Century Ireland and today.
Róisín Stack
Theatre To examine Máire MacNeill’s ‘Lughnasa’ (1962) as a way of considering how traditions and revivals inform and embed national identity. To explore cultural identity and nationalism through women’s oral histories. To use the research to develop a contemporary off-site, transposable performance.
Emma O'Halloran
Music Interview Irish women artists about their lives and creative practices. Receive mentorship from an acclaimed director and write a text inspired by these conversations. Collaborate with two top musicians while developing a new work for voices and strings about creativity and the lives of Irish women artists.
Áine Ní Laoghaire
Theatre Document the role of Irish female DJs in the 80s and 90s, a pivotal era for women’s equality, mentored by Prof. Samantha Parsley. Develop a new multiform theatre work, supported by DJ Sally Cinnamon. Conclude with a 2 week workshop, supported by collaborators and Blue Raincoat Theatre Co.
Sinéad Diskin
Theatre Through the development and workshopping of a multi- disciplinary theatre piece, examine how the lives of women in the 20th Century have come to effect and influence women and girls today. This will be through collaboration and experimentation using verbatim text, music and dance.