The healing powers of female friendship are at the heart of this powerful new collection from Karan Casey. Her 12th album speaks of an artist in her prime: in full possession of her expressive powers and using them to shine a light on the many inequities that blight women’s lives.

Casey’s preoccupations have been coloured by her experience as one of the co-founders of Fair Plé, an initiative seeking gender equality in traditional and folk music. It’s an ideal given unequivocal voice in Casey’s song, I Live in a Country, with co-vocalist Pauline Scanlan, and it carries echoes of Sinéad O’Connor’s glorious chutzpah, propelled by the rhythmic intensity redolent of Luka Bloom’s work of the mid 1990s.

Another duet, with Ríoghnach Connolly, Daughter Dear is an intimate peek into the unspoken moments that define mothers-and-daughters’ relationships, reverberating long after its final notes evaporate. The title track is an able inheritor of the ballsy will expressed by Sinéad O’Connor (yes, there’s no denying her influence) on her reading of the traditional song, I am Stretched on Your Grave, complete with the recurring phrase: “my apple tree, my brightness”.

Produced by Seán Óg Graham, this collection of Casey’s songs sits on extremely thoughtful arrangements with some fine contributions from Kate Ellis on cello, Ashley Hoyer on mandolin and many others. A glorious, unflinching portrait of Casey, an artist in full flight.