North Circular at the Showroom, Q&A with traditional Irish singer Annie Hughes & film director Luke McManus

North Circular is a 'musical documentary' that takes the viewer on a journey through the North Circular Road in Dublin. McManus interweaves the personal and institutional histories of places along the the road, and documents the recent activism of the folk revival scene against their gentrification of the neighbourhood, which includes the saving of The Cobblestone, a beloved pub, host and haven for folk sessions for local singers and musicians, including Lisa O'Neill. 

The film deals with themes that are hard to nail down and lets the stories of those living around the North Circular settle in ambiguity, much like life itself, where joy and sorrow, suffering and recovery, loss and pleasure sit side by each in acknowledgement, without the need to push the other aside, all the more potent and true for their shadow. More ode than essay, the film's directorial voice is quiet and without argument or agenda, letting those in front of the camera do the talking. 

While the film is overwhelmingly hopeful and foregrounds people's capacity to laugh and joke even in the aftermath of displacement and trauma, there are moments of slight discomfort—a filmmaker's happy accidents—that hint at a darker underbelly of society: two men high on heroin dance alongside two Roma women, making them uncomfortable; casual racist remarks are shared between a man giving change to another. North Circular celebrates pride of place without being nationalistic, and brings to the screen the lives of working class Dubliners without tokenism or fetish – the stories belong to those who have lived through them, who tell it in their way. 

Finally, it was an absolute treat to hear Annie Hughes, who opens the film with her gorgeous voice, sing two traditional Irish tunes for the audience at the Showroom.