Jennifer Walshe Releases Pro-Choice Track Ahead of Referendum

Gustave Courbet’s ‘Jo, the Beautiful Irish Girl’, the cover image for ‘Peg 2018’

Jennifer Walshe Releases Pro-Choice Track Ahead of Referendum

'Peg 2018' features the opening lines of Peig Sayer's autobiography in a spoken word and electronics piece.

Composer Jennifer Walshe has released a short pro-choice work, titled Peg 2018, ahead of the upcoming Irish referendum on the regulation of termination of pregnancy. 

The piece was originally created for the Room for Rebellion collective and C.A.N.V.A.S for a compilation release in aid of pro-choice charities, but as this will not be released until later this year Walshe released the track on 18 May, a week before the referendum. 

Peg 2018 is a piece of spoken word against an electronic backdrop of whistling explosions and a threatening burbling drone. Based on the opening lines of the autobiography of Peig Sayers – ‘I am an old woman now, with one foot in the grave and the other on its edge’ – the piece then presents the reflections of a fictional Peg on attitudes towards women, sex and pregnancy in Ireland. 

Had I known in my childhood half of what the future had in store for me. Had I known even one third or one quarter of the bullshit I would have to put up with, my mind and heart wouldn’t have been as gay or as courageous as they were at the beginning of my days…

Listen to the full track below.

The Referendum on the regulation of termination of pregnancy will take place on 25 May. To find out more visit www.refcom.ie.

Published on 21 May 2018

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