It’s women, women, and more women across the arts scene in West Cork, with the fairer sex celebrated across the region with theatres shows in both Macroom and in Castletownbere.

In Macroom, singer-songwriter Fiona Kennedy brings her theatrical production, Natural Woman to The Briery Gap on Saturday October 4th. The show marks a departure from Kennedy’s traditional musical performances, blending original songs with readings that explore the legacy of the women who have shaped Kennedy’s life and creative journey. 

Inspired by figures like Dervla Murphy, Vicky Phelan, activist Mary Crilly, and Kennedy’s own late mother, the show celebrates courage, resilience, and the quiet heroism of everyday women with readings from author Ethel Crowley and Kennedy’s superb band joining them onstage.

Audiences can expect a blend of great songs and narrative that will both entertain and captivate, offering a fresh perspective on the power of female influence.

Fiona Kennedy who is bringing her show to Macroom.

Natural Woman sold out its initial run at Cork Arts Theatre, and is now poised to make its debut West Cork performance in the Briery Gap Macroom. 

Meanwhile, a bit further south, Clare Murphy offers a strictly adults-only show with the The Spanking Goddess and Other Discarded Tales. 

Dubliner Murphy guides the audience via a romp through the untold myths of the Celts, with tales of ‘badass deities, feral fighters, unorthodox sex, hairy bodies, mastery, and goddess-on-goddess battles’.

These wild women never made the cut into the light, and their story is not for the faint-hearted, and with descriptions of sex, bodies, and sexual threat, is definitely not for children!

The Spanking Goddess and Other Discarded Tales runs at the Sarah Walker Gallery in Castletownbere on Saturday September 20th at 8pm.