FOLK singer Ewan McColl’s ode to the 1984 Dunnes Stores strikers and the words of abuse victims and asylum seekers were among testimonies staged in Galway at the weekend to mark International Human Rights Day.
First-hand narratives of others involved in miscarriages of justice and breaches of civil liberties, such as former death row prisoner Peter Pringle and Micheál and Caitlín Ó Seighin of the Rossport Five, also formed material for Whoop it up for Liberty! performed at the Druid Theatre.
The collaboration between actors, community activists and academics was directed by Thomas Conway, Druid Theatre’s literary manager, in association with the Human Rights in Ireland blog, humanrights.ie.
Drama students and some of the texts’ authors, such as Mr Pringle, disability campaigners and artists Donal Toolan and Paddy Doyle, were hired as the “cast” for the series of readings. The title was taken from an ironic phrase in Let Us Free Ireland, written in 1899 by James Connolly.
“The academics selected the texts and presented them to me, and I was very keen to ensure that it worked theatrically,” Mr Conway said.
Readings ranged from accounts of the 1842 Galway starvation riots to the early days of the Irish language civil rights movement to the experiences of Dublin squatters in 1969, and a minor and asylum seeker recently arrived in Ireland.
Traveller Margaret McDonagh’s memory of how settled neighbours would not help when her brother needed first aid was also among excerpts read.
NUI Galway senior research fellow in disability law Dr Eilionóir Flynn worked with Mr Conway and human rights bloggers Deirdre Duffy of the University of Nottingham, Mairead Enright of the University of Kent and Eoin Daly of Dublin City University to put the event together.