Silent Grace

Silent Grace is a feature film written and directed by Maeve Murphy. It is about friendship and survival. A fictional story based on real events, covering the untold story of Republican women prisoners involvement in the 1980/81 Dirty Protest and first Hunger Strike. It is inspired by Nell McCafferty's The Armagh Women and adapted on the play/screenplay "Now and at the hour of our Death" that Murphy co-wrote with theatre company Trouble and Strife. Silent Grace stars Orla Brady, Cathleen Bradley, with Cara Seymour, Dawn Bradfield, Carol Scanlan, Conor Mullen, and Patrick Bergin. It received completion funds from The Irish Film Board. Silent Grace was chosen as the UK entry for the Cannes Film Festival in 2002 but as it previously screened in the Cannes market in 2001, it could not be considered any further for competition. The film premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh 2001. It then was selected for the Taormina, Moscow, Foyle, Dinard and Hamptons International Film Festival USA (nominated for the Conflict and Resolution Award). A small cinema release followed in UK/Ireland via Guerilla Films in 2004. Silent Grace was critically acclaimed, and was awarded the Soka Art Award (Japan). Silent Grace experienced a revival and wider audience in 2017 after 3 major articles in the Irish Times Culture section about the women and the film that had been written out of history. On 24 June 2017, TV3 gave Silent Grace its nationwide broadcast premiere at primetime, in the Republic of Ireland, on Be3. TV3 said in IFTN "Silent Grace firmly puts women back in the 1980s narrative and makes compelling viewing". The Sunday Times made it one of the "Films of the Week"