Macnas farms out acting work to inner city children

If working with animals or children is meant to be tough what about children dressed as animals?

"You need a lot of patience," concedes John Crumlish, of the Galway street theatre group Macnas. "They are so energetic and unpredictable. But that can be an asset, too."

Patience was needed in abundance yesterday as the theatre group held one of its final rehearsals with 60 children from Dublin's south inner city before tomorrow's St Patrick's Day parade. The children are to perform a pageant with Macnas entitled Springtime, based on this year's festival theme, "Hullabaloo".

"Basically, it's a rural Irish scene with flowers and grass and farmers and swallows, with foxes worrying the sheep which are going around on wheelbarrows. There are farmer women sowing seeds with a giant scarecrow behind them. And in the middle of it all is a giant grasshopper which leaps 15 feet in the air every so often, causing havoc when it lands.

"It's quite open to interpretation," he adds.

The children, aged 11 to 14, have been brought together by the South West Inner City Network, which entered the parade on its own last year and the year before.

"Macnas have made a big difference," says Ms Marie Stanley, secretary of the network's youth committee. "The kids can't wait to get out there, especially as the parade is going through their area along Patrick Street and Kevin Street. That's the way it should be. I mean all these American marching bands are nice but it should be more of a community event."

For the parade, the Dublin group will join up with 15 children from the Galway-based Fior Oige and Ballybane Travellers' youth groups who have been trained by Macnas to provide percussionary assistance.

Practice sessions have been held with the children in both Dublin and Galway at least twice a week for the past six weeks. Despite this, says Ms Stanley, as she watches the foxes and swallows go through their routines, there is still some work to do. "We can only hope it will be all right on the day."