Liverpool Irish Festival: Stolen: Film Screening & Q&A

This special screening has been organised as a commemorative event by Renewing Roots, with funding from the Government of Ireland’s Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth Commemorative Grant Scheme.

Released in 2023, Stolen explores Ireland’s institutional scandal in which the treatment of unmarried women, who became pregnant in 20th century Ireland, sparked global outrage. A government inquiry unearthed shocking accounts of cruelty and abuse, including forced separations and adoptions, inhumane living conditions, children used as cheap labour and infant mortality rates up to five-times the national average. In Stolen survivors – including mothers and witnesses – speak out.

Stolen received a nomination, from the Irish Film and Television Academy (IFTA), for the 2024 George Morrison Feature Documentary Award. Recently, The Irish Times awarded Margo’s titles Hush-A-Bye Baby and Waveriders, places within Top 50 Irish Films Ever list.

Following the screening, there will be an interview with the film’s director — Margo Harkin — before a short Q&A with panellists Martha O’Neill (Stolen’s producer) and Patricia Carey.

Known for her deeply personal documentaries, and writing on sensitive and controversial topics, Margo became well known in the 1980s for Hush-a-Bye Baby, The Hunger Strike and Mother Ireland.

Sat 2 Nov, 2-4.30pm Film 1hr47mins + introduction and Q&A.

Free, booking required