CQAF 2025

Presented by The Mac and CQAF

For anyone who’s ever been young and dreamed of going to a festival and finding Nirvana…

Lisdoon Nirvana is a dramatic monologue with live music, written and performed by Frankie McCafferty and directed by Charlie Bonner.

Based on the last music festival at Lisdoonvarna in July 1983, the piece follows one young guy, Macker, and his friends making the Odyssean trip from Donegal to Clare. Travelling on the pillion of his friend’s two-stroke motorbike, they encounter 80s Ireland and young people from all over making the same pilgrimage.

Laden with camping gear and cheap alcohol smuggled across the border, wearing a converted Garda riot control helmet stuffed with bin bags, and a pair of swimming goggles, our hero undergoes a rite of passage as he ventures out into the big bad beautiful world.

Through his eyes we see the Folk and Rock glory of the Irish Glastonbury – and a country in transition, with a backdrop of recession, church oppression, emigration and Troubles. But right now Macker’s 17. There’s Smithwick’s in the rucksack. And rumour has it that the girls from the North are bringing hash and condoms. So that’s alright Mama…

Written and performed by Frankie McCafferty. Directed by Charlie Bonner

Produced by An Grianán Theatre Productions