Growler is Irish artist and activist Dee Mulrooney’s alter-ego and performance piece. She is an 85-year-old drum-banging shamanic vulva living in exile. Through storytelling, song, spoken word and comedy, Growler takes audiences on a ritualistic, theatrical journey through grief, loss, exile and displacement.

No stone is left unturned and no one is left behind on Growler’s quest to heal the past and help people to love the “eejit” out of themselves. With a tongue like a lash and a heart of gold, Growler is at the coal face, blazing the streets with her trolley and staff, remembering the everyday sacred.

Heart of Glass have been supporting Dee Mulrooney through research for the past year, to bring Growler to Merseyside. Over the next year they will be working together to develop a programme, connecting with communities St Helens and Knowsley.

We’re delighted to be joined by Ailbhe Smyth, for this very special event.

Ailbhe Smyth was the founding head of Women’s and Gender Studies at University College Dublin and is a long-time feminist, LGBTQI+ and socialist activist. She was centrally involved in the Marriage Equality referendum in 2015, co-founded the Coalition to Repeal the 8th Amendment and was co-director of the Together for Yes abortion referendum campaign in 2018. Currently, she is Chair of Women’s Aid and also of Ballyfermot STAR Addiction services. She is a director of Age Action and of the Women’s Global Health Network Ireland, and is Patron of the Women’s Collective Ireland (WCI). Ailbhe is a founding member of Le Cheile: Diversity not Division Ireland for All.