Up-coming Productions
Nellie Gifford
Grace Gifford
March 15th at 7.30pm in Aras ui Cathaill Lecture theatre, NUI Galway
(Building beside the Bailey Allen Hall)
Hosted by Cumann Staire, Feminist Society and Drama Society NUI Galway
Specila Guest: Caitriona Clear a Senior Lecturer in the Department of History NUIG
This event is open to the public and all are welcome
We all know the story of the 1916 rising and the the patriots who gave their lives for Ireland, what many of don't know however is the stories of the women of the rising. In this centenary year the NUI Galway Cumann Staire (History Society), Feminist Society and Drama Society present an evening in praise and recognition of the role of women in the rising. The women who played a significant role in the events which changed our history but who history forgot. The event takes place in Aras ui Cathaill lecture theatre (building beside the Bailey Allen Hall) on March 15th at 7.30pm and will form part of the NUI Galway ISDA Theatre Fringe Festival panel discussion series.
Guest on the evening will be playwright Gerry Conneely whose radio play 'The Gifford Girls' is due to be broadcast on the Keith Finnegan show on Galway Bay FM for Easter Week and is funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the television licence fee. The play tells the story of The Gifford sisters from a protestant family in Rathfarnam. According to playwright and Director Gerry Conneely '1916 rising was the seminal event in the establishment of the Irish State. Most of us know the actual events of the rising, itself, and its tragic climax. However little is known of the men themselves and practically nothing is known of the women at the centre of the event. The production sets out to turn the traditional treatments on their head. While dealing accurately with the events it looks in depth at the mood and atmosphere of the city during the years leading up to the rebellion.'
The play is produced by Iaro Productions and producer Ríona Hughes and members of the cast will be present on the evening to participate in the discussion. The event will feature some extracts from the play, audio and video interviews with women recounting their experiences during the rising. Joining the panel will be Caitriona Clear a Senior Lecturer in the Department of History NUIG. She is a founder member of the Women's History Association of Ireland and the author of several books on nineteenth-century Irish women's history and social history generally.century.
The evening promises to bring to life these extraordinary women, members of Inghinidhe na hEirean, women like Constance Markievicz, Helena Molony and Grace Gifford, who married Joseph Plunkett on the night of his execution, and Muriel who was married to Thomas McDonagh and their sisters Nellie and Sidney (John) Gifford. Women who stood shoulder to shoulder with the men and whose courage and ingenuity set in motion events which led to Irish independence. The NUI Galway Societies invite you to celebrate their memory and reflect on how things have changed and how somethings remain the same one hundred years on.