Saturday 29th March 1975
Location: Watergate Theatre, Parliament Street, Kilkenny. R95 D320
“We have this one an’ only chance. An’ in all the kingdom of Ireland aren’t we – us women – aren’t we damned lucky to be getting out of it?”Set in 1850, Belfast Girls tells the story of five fierce young women who face their dark pasts on a ship bound for Australia, as they leave Belfast in search of a better life.
Confined in close quarters in the belly of the ship, they embark on a tumultuous sea journey as they sail away from their homeland. Secrets are revealed, enemies made, and it becomes clear that no matter where they go, there is no escaping the past.

An award-winning feminist play based on a true piece of largely untold Irish history Jaki McCarrick’s Belfast Girls follows the story of five fierce young Irish women aboard the Inchinnan travelling from Belfast to Australia during the Famine in the desperate hope of a new life abroad. But the further from home they voyage the more each of them comes to realise they cannot escape their pasts, nor the seemingly universal subjugation of their gender. Over the long ship journey the women form intense bonds, and life-changing secrets are revealed, personal and political.

We presented the Irish premiere in 2024, this is a new production under the direction of Rhiann Jeffrey.
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