The Play I didn't write about Henry Joy McCracken (1997)

I did write one play about Henry Joy McCracken.  It was called The Joys of History and it was a great piece of fun, but it never saw the light of day: ahead of its time.  It was read aloud once, by Paddy McCoey, Roisin Gribbin and myself, in the cottage in Quinsboro, Monasterevin, but it wasn't to be; I had to take a more serious tack at the subject.
I had been commissioned by Dock Ward to write a play about Henry, and I did a lot of work in that direction.  I was in the throes of an advanced draft in the summer of 1997 when the Provisional IRA declared their cease-fire.  I took a step back and came to the decision that a play about a United Irishman, presented by a group from a republican area, would be more likely to get in the way of peace than to help it.  Others might, and did, take a different view, and I respect their sincerity, but I had to decide for myself if this was how I wanted to proceed, and I chose to desist.  I explained my position to Paddy McCoey, who had been working with me closely on the project; he wasn't pleased but he understood where I was coming from. 
I left the project, which went on to become Rebellion, and I had no futher involvement with the script or the production.  Ironically, in the light of my "disappearance" from the accounts of The Mourning Ring", I was credited in at least one review with having written the script for Rebellion. 
Sometimes I wonder if I might be the man from God knows where.