Madam, - I am a postgraduate research student in the School of Drama and Theatre Studies, Trinity College, Dublin. I am writing this letter as an appeal to any of your readers who may have information on the Cork playwrights Geraldine Cummins (1890-1968) and Susanne Day (b.1890).
These women were suffragettes with the Cork Branch of the Munster Women's Franchise League (MWFL). Susanne Day was one of the first women to be elected as a guardian on the "Poor Law" board in her area.
Geraldine Cummins was a daughter of Prof Ashley Cummins MD (St Patrick's Place, Cork) and Susanne Day's father, Robert, was a city magistrate.
Cummins and Day co-wrote three cottage or "peasant" plays, two of which, Broken Faith and Fox and Geese, were produced by the early Abbey Theatre in 1913 and 1917 respectively. Although neither woman subsequently pursued a playwrighting career, both were published authors of novels, reviews, and in Cummins's case, a biography of the Cork authors Somerville and Ross.
As a contribution to Cork 2005, I am mounting a one-day theatre history conference in UCC (December 2nd) on Munster women playwrights to present a selection of new research in Irish women's theatre history. With the kind permission of the Cork Archive Institute, three performances of Fidelity a "recovered" one-act play written in 1914 by Cummins and Day, will also be presented on December 1st, 2nd and 3rd.
I would be particularly happy to make contact with any relations of these playwrights and to extend an invitation for them to attend either event.For further information please email megreene@tcd.ie or write to me at the address below. - Yours, etc,
VELMA O'DONOGHUE GREENE, School of Drama, Trinity College, Dublin 2