The Mourning Ring was a play about Protestant culture and identity in Northern Ireland. It was produced by Ballybeen Community Theatre. I was in charge of the script, and helping to develop the story-line. My title on the project was "Script Editor". I worked alongside Paddy McCoey who directed the show. Both of us were blow-ins: Paddy from North Belfast, and me from Dublin; both of us came from Roman Catholic backgrounds. Paddy had distinctive red hair, and I had long hair and a massive beard. You could say we sort of stood out in East Belfast. Paddy was invited "over" first, because of his experience with large-scale community theatre projects with Dock Ward. He brought me on his coat-tails, as a journey-man writer, who would do what needed to be done and then walk away.
The story revolved around a number of protestant families, the loss of life and emotional damage done by the Troubles, and the erosion of traditional rights. The contemporary community was presented against the backdrop of the journey of their Scottish ancestors to this inhospitable place, and the seeming impossibility of peaceful co-existence. The outcome of the story was decided by the group, and I wrote what they wanted; the central character was a woman whose husband had been murdered; her choice was between staying here or uprooting her family and taking refuge in Scotland; her choice, in the end (and the choice of the group), was to stay.
I fell in love with them all.
This was the second half of my contribution to the peace process. We were only able to do the work because there was a cease-fire; even with that, we had to be vetted by various people whom we never met; our car-registrations were noted and we were labelled "all right" for the duration of the project.
I still feel a pang of something when I see how little record of my role and participation seems to have percolated through the years, but that was part of the price of being there; I would do the same again if I had to.
No comments:
Post a Comment