On St Stephen's Day, a programme about the history and imaginings of the Virgin Mary. Voices on the programme include Professor Miri Rubin, author of Mother of God: A History of the Virgin Mary (Yale University Press); Colm Tóibín, whose play Testament, performed by Marie Mullen, directed by Garry Hynes and produced by Landmark Productions, had its premiere at the Dublin Theatre Festival in October 2011; and art historian Catherine Marshall, who joins Vincent at the National Gallery of Ireland to talk about images of Mary in visual art. We hear an extract from Lorelei Harris's RTÉ Radio One documentary, About Mary. The writer Aidan Mathews reads from the Koran and Ann-Marie Power reads WB Yeats's poem, Mother of God. And Marina Warner, author of Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and Cult of the Virgin Mary (Picador) reflects on that seminal book, published in 1976, and for which she is currently writing a new introduction.
Music heard on the programme: Alyawm, Arab-Byzantine tradition, performed by the Ensemble Sarband; Lady Madonna by the Beatles; All is Fulfilled, from Bach's St John Passion, sung by Kathleen Ferrier; Totus Tuus, set to music by Górecki, performed by the choir of King's College, Cambridge.
There will be more from Marina Warner on the following week's programme, on her new book, Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights (Chatto & Windus).