About the event
When: Thursday, 7 August, 12.30pm to 2pm
Join us for lunchtime readings from three Northern Ireland-based poets, Linda McKenna, Emma McKervey, and Milena Williamson. The event consists of readings and conversations inspired by historic cases relating to women tried in court in the 1800s (including the case of a woman who stole keys from the Bank of England).
The poems collectively draw on historical research, archival materials, voices of the female working class, and how the cases were portrayed by the Press in the 1800s. During the session, the writers will explore these past events in more detail, and their continuing relevance today.
Free, but booking essential.
About the poetry collections
Linda McKenna’s second collection, Four Thousand Keys, (Doire Press, 2024), is inspired by the case of Elizabeth Dunham who was tried at the Old Bailey in 1819 for stealing keys from the Bank of England. A search of her lodgings uncovered four thousand keys for many public buildings around London including House of Commons, the Greenwich Watch Tower, the Guildhall, Maidstone Gaol.
Emma McKervey’s latest collection, Highland Boundary Fault, (Turas Press, 2024), looks at an old family story of her great grandparents, whose love letters between Greenock and the Outer Hebrides were intercepted by a jealous village girl and resulted in a Sheriff’s Court Case in the 1890s.
Milena Williamson's debut collection, Into the Night that Flies So Fast, (Dedalus Press, 2024) is inspired by the life and death of Bridget Cleary who in 1895 was burned to death by her family on suspicion of being a fairy changeling.
About the writers
Linda McKenna is originally from Dublin but has lived in Downpatrick in County Down for many years. She won the Seamus Heaney Award for New Writing in 2018 and the title poem of her first collection, In the Museum of Misremembered Things, (Doire Press 2020), won the An Post/Irish Book Awards Poem of the Year in 2020. She has worked in heritage and museums for nearly 30 years. Four Thousand Keys is her second collection.
Emma McKervey studied at Dartington College of Arts. Her award-winning work is widely published across both islands, and she has worked for over two decades as an arts facilitator. Her debut collection was published by Doire Press. Highland Boundary Fault is her second collection. She has just completed a MRes in poetry the Seamus Heaney Centre at QUB.
Milena Williamson has a PhD in poetry from the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s University Belfast. A recipient of the Eric Gregory Award, she is the author of the pamphlet Charm for Catching a Train (Green Bottle Press) and the book Into the Night that Flies So Fast (Dedalus Press).
Essential information
- Event begins at 12.30pm. Security measures in place, please make sure to leave time to access the museum
- Booking essential as limited spaces available
- Ticket will include general admission to the museum before/after the event.
For more information about our featured poets and their collective, see their details below:
Milena Williamson @milenaeve
Emma McKervey @mckervey_emma
Lina McKenna @lindamckenna00
Femina Culpa Poetry Collective @feminaculpa
