Singer-songwriter Róisín El Cherif is the product of the rich cultures of both Ireland and Palestine, with her roots meeting to create a unique window into two complex histories.

Born to an Irish mother and a father from Gaza, the artist's Palestinian family is “spread out across the world – in refugee camps, and in the diaspora,” as she told Hot Press just over a year ago.

“There is this constant, anxiety about belonging,” she reflects on her double heritage now, in the days leading up to her highly anticipated headline show at the Button Factory. “And I stand firm that I can belong to both, and that mixed heritage people are the bridge.”

This mixed heritage, she insists, offers a special understanding of both sides – a vital knowledge during an ongoing genocide that has claimed the lives of over 50,000 Palestinians.

"That's why it was very important to me to talk about Palestine,” she insists, “I couldn't stand the dehumanisation of the people that I understand."

“It’s not racism all the time – it's just ignorance,” El Cherif continues. “It's not people's fault if they're fed lies from the TV and the media and the government.”

“I spent the first part of my life in the Arabic world. So I was kind of brought up as an international kid until I was 16, when we came to Ireland.

"But I was raised by an Irish woman,” she adds, “and becoming Irish was the missing piece – it's just a shame that the other missing piece – being Palestinian — can't be explored as much, because of what's happened to Palestine.”

Still, through her Irish roots, El Cherif was able to deepen her connection with Palestine and its struggle for autonomy: “In Ireland, we have a long history of suffering, and we're very lucky that we live in today's world, where our forefathers did a lot of the fighting so we can be free.

“We have a shared history with any colonised people. Palestinians are not the only people who are suffering at the hands of colonisation, but just the sheer amount of destruction... I don't think anybody has ever seen a massacre in 4K every single day for two years.”

Despite this level of violence, it is through choked out tears that El Cherif continues to be one of the most significant voices for Palestine in Ireland.

“My faith in humanity is broken,” the musician admits, “but I want to show the bridges of connection that we’re struggling to see.”

Celebrating existing bridges and building new ones is something that El Cherif has been attempting to do with her art since the release of her first single, ‘Kerosene’, back in 2016. But this emphasis will be especially to the fore at her upcoming gig. A multi-disciplinary performance at the crossroads of music, theatre and cinema, it's been designed as a larger, more ambitious version of the show she presented at Dublin Fringe last summer.

“I suppose the Dublin Fringe show was the first experiment – it was my first multi-disciplinary performance and it was basically all about Palestine.

“We just kept it quite simple – it was music and films. Whereas for this, we're bringing in the magic element of the cailleach and Irish folklore and mythology. We're going full hog with it. Myself and the band of girls are basically in full banshee mode – as you do, when the world's falling apart,” El Cherif jokes. “I love Irish mythology. For me it was always my happy place. Anything fantasy, anything magic is where I go to hide. I just find there's power in the mystery. But the themes of death and grief are also here: we're trying to make sense of it – we're trying to honour it, because it's horrific.”

One of the ways the performance attempts to honour Palestinian grief and culture at large is through the use of various film extracts. One of them is the ‘80s Lebanese film Leila and The Wolves, directed by Heiny Srour.

“All her films are fascinating," El Cherif says. "It's the woman's perspective of the Middle East – she's broken down so many doors and barriers. She brings in the world of memories and what has been before to explain what is happening now and what is coming.”

Another cinematic element used in the show is Mohammed Bakri’s Jenin, Jenin, a documentary “about the siege of the Jenin refugee camp, which happened not that long ago, in 2002,” El Cherif explains.

“His film was banned in Israel, and they brought him to court, even though all he did was just interview the people of the camp and show what happened.”

“What we're seeing in Gaza now also happened in Jenin – they put a siege on the camp. One of the main people that really touches my soul in this film is a young girl who is wise beyond her years. This girl should have a childhood, and instead she is describing how she sees dead bodies.”

Art and music, El Cherif insists, “reach people more than an essay of politics."

"For instance, I always wanted to sing in Arabic – that was something I may have explored in the future, but there wasn't a huge rush. And then this happened, and it was like, ‘God, we have to humanise these people, because maybe if people know what's going on, they'll help.'

“And so I started to sing in Arabic and, for a lot of listeners, this was the first time they'd heard Arabic that's not in a format related to fear. I had people, at some of the gigs – Irish people — in pieces, coming up to me. They had no idea what I was saying, but it moved them.”

“I'm not an academic,” the musician concludes. “I'm not an activist. I'm not in the world of politics. I went into the world of art and music and film – and I went there because I want to tell stories.”

Róisín El Cherif plays The Button Factory this Wednesday, April 30.