In Ordinary Time

In 1993, Carmel Mc Mahon (age 20) left Ireland for New York, carrying two suitcases and a ton of unseen baggage. It took years, and a bitter struggle with alcohol addiction, to unpack the intricate traumas of her past and present. Candid yet lyrical, In Ordinary Time explores the ways that trauma reverberates through time and through individual lives. It also draws connections to the events and rhythms of Ireland's long Celtic, early Christian and Catholic history. From tragically lost siblings to the broader social scars of the Famine and the Magdalene Laundries, Mc Mahon sketches the evolution of a consciousness - from her conservative 1970s upbringing to 1990s New York, and finally, back to the much-changed Ireland of today.