Dec 03
EAST WALL CHRISTMAS 2023
Oct 16
Remembering Philip Chevron on his 10th anniversary -
A very special tribute event was held to celebrate the life and legacy of the great Dublin songwriter at the Sean O’Casey Theatre earlier this year. The annual Sarah Lundberg Summer School is held in memory of our friend and colleague who took her own life in 2014, and we felt that this event was one she would have loved, and was an appropriate tribute to the both her and Philip.
To mark Philips 10th anniversary on the 8th October we were delighted to share this playlist of all the contributions from that event, featuring family, band-mates, friends and collaborators all remembering him in their own way.
Featuring : Deborah Blacoe, Pete Holidai, Stephen Averill (The Radiators from Space / Trouble Pilgrims), Michael Murphy, Phil Mullen, Phil Odgers (The Men They Couldn’t Hang), Cáit O’Riordan, Catherine Ann Cullen, Anto Seery, Eoin Freeney, Roger Armstrong (Ace Records), Declan Lynch, Joseph O’Connor and Aidan Gillen.
(A big thanks to Louis Maxwell, GracePark Productions and Conor McKenna for their great work recording and editing this content).
Sep 27
CAREER L.E.A.P. recruitment – next program starting October 2nd, 2023
Last call for Career Leap which is starting this Monday October 2nd. Are you unemployment and 17-25. We have the program just for you. Give Aimee a call on 0870980953 to secure the last few places we have.
Applicants can apply here: Career LEAP Application Form 2023 – Google Forms
Sep 24
“No Coward Soul : Jack Nalty (1902-1938)” by Steve Nugent .
First published twenty years ago (2003), “No Coward Soul” was the first comprehensive account of the life of Jack Nalty made available. Written by his nephew, Steve Nugent, his research ensured that the full story of his uncle achieved it’s rightful place and was not simply a few references found in accounts of the Spanish Civil War. Steve’s dedication to this work is all the more extraordinary given that he was living in Canada and in a largely pre-internet age tracking down the pieces of Jack’s life and finding people who held pieces of the story was no small feat.
This weekend the 85th anniversary of Jack Nalty was commemorated in East Wall, It is worth mentioning that the date of Jack’s heroic sacrifice (23rd September) was also the date of Steves birthday. Steve sadly passed away in 2017.
The book is long out of print, but we are delighted to make it available here to read online or download :
To mark the 80th anniversary of Jack’s death a plaque was unveiled in East Wall near the former family home. A new booklet “In pursuit of an Ideal” was published. While featuring additional material, this volume was based on Steve’s work and would not have been possible without his original inspiration.
It can be read online or downloaded here:
Sep 20
Jack Nalty – East Wall sports champion (and Republican soldier)
“Jack [Nalty] always gave of his best”
This year marks the 85th anniversary of the death of Jack Nalty , an East Wall man who died at the Battle of the Ebro on 23rd September 1938. A Republican , socialist and trade unionist , Jack had fought in the War of Independence and Civil War , and as an ITGWU organiser represented 600 workers in Dublin Port oil companies . In 1936 he volunteered to join the International Brigades to support the Spanish people against Fascism , and on the day when the Brigades were withdrawn from combat he was shot dead,having returned into danger to assist two British volunteers.
During the years 1925 to 1933, he also pursued another interest, a long distance runner with the Dublin City Harriers, winning championships on numerous occasions and even representing Ireland in 1931. The records of the club reflect his achievements:
In the seasons 1925-26 and 1926-27, he won the Seven Miles Cross-country Club Championships.
In 1927-28 he dead heated for the title and won it again in 1932-33.
He is listed in individual performances in Cross-country Championships:
In 1927-28 – Second in the County Dublin Senior.
In 1928-29 –Third in the County Dublin Senior (“Nalty ran with great determination and finished a good third”).
In 1930-31 – Third in both the National Senior and the Connacht Province Senior.
In 1931 he received International honours when he represented Ireland in the cross country team at Baldoyle, County Dublin.
Following his death, the annual record of the Dublin Harriers recorded:
“Our season closed on a sad note when the Club members learned of the death of Jack Nalty in Spain, Sept. 23rd 1938. Jack always gave of his best; his name adorns many of our club trophies. R.I.P.”
Join us on Saturday 23rd September @ 1.30pm to commemorate Jack Nalty and his fellow Dubliner Liam McGregor (Inchicore) who died on the same day.
Assemble: St Josephs co-ed school , East Wall Road.
(Image: Dublin City Harriers , including Jack Nalty. Image courtesy : Nugent family / East Wall History Group)
Sep 10
“From the Calton to Catalonia” – Interview with playwrights John and Willy Maley
The Sean O’Casey Festival 2023 is delighted to present the Irish premiere of this acclaimed play by John and Willy Maley. Set in the 1930’s during the Spanish Civil War, it is based on the true story of their father James and other family members.
The story switches between a fascist prison in Spain and the tenements of Glasgow, as volunteer James and his comrades are facing possible execution, while their mothers, wives and sisters face a different struggle at home.
SO’C: Can we just start off by asking you about your fathers’ experience in Spain, as this is central to the story of the play?
“Our father James Maley (1908-2007) was born in Glasgow, in the East End, populated by Irish immigrants. His father, Ned, came from Mayo as a young man. James joined the Communist Party on 16 February 1932, learned to use a rifle in the Territorial Army from 1934, and went to Spain in 1936 as part of the International Brigades to defend the Spanish Republic against General Franco’s fascist coup. As part of Machine Gun Company No. 2 of the British Battalion he was captured at the Battle of Jarama in February 1937 and held prisoner for several months before being released as part of a prisoner exchange. While he was incarcerated, a propaganda newsreel was shown in a Glasgow cinema and seen by his mother, who persuaded the projectionist to cut two frames from the reel. We grew up with these two images in the house – our father on the back of a lorry with his comrades, then lined up in a prison yard. When my father came back to Glasgow he had copies made for his comrades.”
SO’C: Your father of course was only one of many Scottish volunteers, but is it fair to say that Glasgow seems to hold their memory in a particular high regard?
“Glasgow provided a large proportion of the British volunteers for Spain and hosted the city’s only significant socialist monument in the shape of a founding member of the Basque Communist Party, Isidora Dolores Ibárruri Gómez, better known as La Pasionaria, arms upraised, overlooking the Clyde. It was commissioned in 1974 by the International Brigade Association, which the help of the Labour movement in Scotland, and was finally unveiled on 5th December 1979 after the usual right-wing red-baiting. The sculptor, Arthur Dooley, was a communist and a Liverpudlian, best known for his sculpture of the Beatles depicting the Madonna cradling the band with the inscription: “Four lads who shook the world.” Dooley had a few church commissions in his portfolio, including one at Toxteth, and there’s a religious feel to La Pasionaria’s upraised and imploring arms. She is a kind of Madonna figure, and the men and women she salutes shook the world.”
SO’C: What was it that made you decide- this story needs to be told on the stage ?
“In 1990 Glasgow was European City of Culture. The publicity generated by Tory PR machine Saatchi and Saatchi was all empty corporate slogans. The real history of Glasgow as the hub of Red Clydeside, as a workers’ city, a European city, and a crucible of internationalism was glossed over. We didn’t have far to look for a subject that captured all the elements of the city that we felt were being excluded. We decided to home in on the extraordinary role played by men like our father and his comrades in the fight against fascism in Spain. The Cold War, and the collapse of the Soviet Union meant that the anti-fascist activism of the 1930s, and in particular the part played by the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), a dress rehearsal for the Second World War, was a forgotten episode.”
SO’C: And once you had the idea it very quickly made it to the stage. Did you think that three decades later it would reaching new audiences?
“The production history of the play is quite patchy, as you’d expect for a play that began as a community project, modestly funded by Glasgow City Council, yet the play has persisted through word of mouth. The play opened at The Pearce Institute in Govan on 3rd December 1990 and has been revived several times over the years, most recently in 2016 as part of Celtic Connections Music Festival in Glasgow. To mark the 30th anniversary of the original production in 2020 there had been discussions about Irish and Scottish productions, but of course COVID changed all these plans.”
SO’C: One of the aspects of the play which really appeals to us is the similarity with the classic works of Sean O’Casey. The contrasting struggles of the men in the prison and that of their women family members in Glasgow is central to the dynamic, and of course, it’s also a very funny play, despite the subject matter. Was this a deliberate approach?
“Our influences in terms of theatre were O’Casey’s tragicomedies, Brecht’s epic theatre, and John McGrath’s agitprop. These playwrights addressed political history in ways that we found satisfying, blending comedy and seriousness, using songs and speeches, mixing intimate moments with the impact of politics on families and friends. We were aiming for something we jokingly referred to as ‘commie-tragedy’ – the treatment of a socialist past that was already part of history, and a closed book for many. We were writing at a time of deep reaction under a British Tory Government that had been in power for over a decade. It was not an easy time to be talking about communist activism, but it was as ever a vital time to be addressing the rise of the Right and the very real and continuing threat of fascism. In that sense the play has never gone out of fashion.”
SO’C: Another obvious similarity with O’Casey is the authentic use of language. His Dublin characters on stage spoke like working class Dubliners and your characters speak like working class Glaswegians. Did you see that as an issue for others who might want to stage it?
“We wrote the play in the Glasgow accent we heard around us, for a Glasgow cast and a Glasgow production. We expect an Irish cast to make it their own. We’ve never been precious about language and appreciate that the play can be updated, adapted, and the characters made to speak in different voices from the ones we had in our heads when we wrote it. This was just our version of Glaswegian, and was never set in stone. We’ve always seen actors as the proletariat of the theatre, and since they’re the ones out there on stage speaking the lines you have to give them some license to roam and find their own voice in the script. The lines are there to trip off the tongue, not to trip the actor up, so actors can make it work for them – make their own music as it were. There’s a story, perhaps apocryphal, about a Scottish playwright sitting at the back of a theatre during rehearsals asking an actor if there was an apostrophe in the script and if not why did they put one there. That’s not us. Theatre is collaborative and the script is a green paper, not a blueprint.”
SO’C: And I think it’s important for us to add that since we first discussed this upcoming festival production with yourselves you have been nothing but supportive and generous in your approach, and the actors have jumped in with both feet to their roles.
SO’C: Now this is a very important question and one that cannot be avoided. Your family have Irish roots, you were born and bred in Glasgow, so tell us, there has to be a Celtic story in there somewhere?
“James Maley was a lifelong Celtic fan, and when he boarded the packed double decker bus in George Square in Glasgow in December 1936 to go to Spain he saw several neighbours and others he recognised as Celtic supporters. Celtic FC was home to radicals and republicans, as well as more conservative Catholics. At a time when the Catholic Church in Ireland and Scotland was backing Franco, Catholics and Celtic fans like Maley, the son of an Irish immigrant, took a stand for the traditions they felt represented what was best in the club’s history – defence of the underdog. In prison in Spain my father often wondered how his team were doing. Better, he hoped, than his side in the conflict in Spain.”
SO’C: And finally, one last question. Your father lived to the ripe old age of 99. He personally is remembered in print, in song and on stage, and those who fought alongside him too are commemorated. What is their legacy?
“For decades, the International Brigade Association (IBA) held meetings to commemorate the role of volunteers in Spain. As the last of the veterans passed away a new expanded organisation emerged. The International Brigade Memorial Trust (IBMT) exists to preserve the memory and promote the politics of commitment integral to those who went to Spain. And of course, in Ireland there are groups like Friends of the International Brigades (FIBI). In Spain itself, the Law of Democratic Memory offers the prospect of Spanish Citizenship for descendants of members of the International Brigades. The lasting legacy of the volunteers for Spain is the example they set of anti-fascist resistance, their ordinary heroism, and their willingness to lay down their lives for a just cause, the cause of the Left.”
“From the Calton to Catalonia” by John and Willy Maley will be part of the Sean O’Casey Festival 2023.
From Wednesday 13th September to Saturday 16th September
@ 8pm Sean O’Casey Theatre, St Marys Road East Wall.
Tickets are available via eventbrite or book here:
Sep 04
Sean O’Casey Festival 2023: OPENING NIGHT Monday 11th September @7PM
The Sean O’Casey Festival 2023 will be launched on
Monday 11th September,
@ 7pm at the Seán O’Casey Theatre, St Marys Road, East Wall.
Author and historian Paul O’Brien will be our special guest and will officially open the festival. His latest book “Sean O’Casey : Political activist and writer” was published earlier this year by Cork University Press.
This will be followed by performances presented by Hidden Skirts Theatre.
A new exhibition “FRAGMENTS FROM LIFE” by artist Brian Palm will be on display throughout the festival (Monday 11th to Saturday 23rd September). Brian will be in attendance at this opening event.
ALL WELCOME TO THIS FREE EVENT
Please share this invite and details.
Tickets for all other festival events available here-
https://www.eventbrite.ie/o/the-sean-ocasey-festival-17781759064
Aug 28
FRAGMENTS FROM LIFE : art exhibition by Brian Palm
The Sean O’Casey Festival 2023 is delighted to announce that a new art exhibition by Brian Palm will be displayed throughout the festival, from Monday 11th September until Saturday 23rd September.
The exhibition , FRAGMENTS FROM LIFE will be on display at the official opening of the festival at the Sean O’Casey Theatre on Monday 11th September @ 7pm.
FRAGMENTS FROM LIFE
By Brian Palm
As the title suggests, this exhibition captures fragmentary moments in the lives of Dublin city dwellers captured on film decades ago by a young art student. The large archive of black and white photographic negatives created by Brian Palm in the late 1970s and early 1980s have now developed historical significance simply by the passage of time, and they provide a fascinating insight into that era when seen as photos in themselves. However, once the photos have been manipulated by the artist, collaged together and combined with oil paint, pencils, sprays and varnish, they become works of art depicting the city in a deeply personal sense.
The artist focuses on fragmentary moments of time, echoed by a wealth of smaller scale imagery collaged into the picture frames adding a subtle visual subtext. This extra narrative re-enforces the main image with more information, while optically mimicking the heavily ornamented gilt picture frames from centuries past. A sense of bittersweet nostalgia for a bygone era permeates the work, combined with a pragmatic understanding that the artist coexisted in these fragmented moments as well, and captured them with a camera for posterity. It is the cohabitation of the same city streets by locals and a passing artist which directly led to the creation of these images, but it is the artist’s solo occupation that transforms them into art.
Brian Palm’s work is fully supportive of the people and communities he depicts; he took photos of the community in which he lived, and where he was well known and respected. His camera was not a voyeur or interloper, he didn’t use it to expose or condescend. He used it to document aspects of life from that time, as he saw and felt them. A clear sense of trust exists in the eyes and faces of the people he chose to photograph, and there were many lifelong friendships made while creating this large body of work. While delving into this archive for several decades, the artist has created a large body of professional work which constitutes the output of a richly productive artistic career.
This latest exhibition from Brian Palm provides a glimpse into a specific time in Dublin’s history, with hints of stories from life quickly absorbed in passing but captured for eternity.
Brian Palm was part of Dublin Ghosts, a very memorable musical evening during last years festival, taking to the stage with Pete Holidai & Tony St Ledger (Trouble Pilgrims) and Phelim Drew. We are honoured to have him return with a different expression of his artistic talent.
Brian Palm was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1957 and moved to Dublin, Ireland in 1977 to attend the National College of Art and Design, graduating with an Honours BFA in 1981. Palm remained in Ireland and has maintained a studio in Dublin throughout his career. He has regularly shown his work in solo and group exhibitions including the Royal Hibernian Academy’s Annual Exhibitions, Royal Ulster Academy’s Annual Exhibitions, Eigse Exhibitions, Iontas Exhibitions, and many others. His work is on constant view in The Duke Street Gallery, 17 Duke Street, Dublin where the artist has held annual solo exhibitions since 2015.
Palm showed dramatic new work in his solo exhibition ‘Down Our Way’, in February 2015. The show was a triumph and was followed by ‘Myths of the Helga’, inspired by a notorious Irish ship. The show of maritime themed shadowbox sculptures and paintings was held in commemoration of events from the 1916 Rising. The exhibition was officially opened by Commodore Hugh Tully F.O.C.N.S. 2017’s ‘In the Neighbourhood’ brought a return of Palm’s urban based work, then in 2018 ‘On Land and Sea’ combined the two strands in a single exhibition, marking the Centenary of the sinking of HMS Leinster. A painting from the exhibition was used for an Irish postage stamp, and the show was officially opened by Col. Stephen Ryan, Irish Defence Forces.
In 2021 Palm held ‘Cognitive Dissonance’, an exploration of the psychological effects of lockdown through a delicate series of confined cityscapes. Despite the limitations of the time as we came through the Covid era, the show was hugely successful and seemed to capture the public’s imagination.
Brian Palm has exhibited widely throughout Ireland and his work has been sold at auction with Adam’s, Bonham’s, White’s, Mullens, O’Driscoll’s, Drums, and with Sotheby’s in London. Brian Palm has been the recipient of several Arts Council of Ireland awards and bursaries, and the artist has had numerous residencies at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Annamaghkerrig, the Cill Rialaig Project in Kerry and the RHA Atelier Programme.
Brian Palm’s work is represented in numerous public and private collections in Ireland and abroad. Brian Palm’s work is available at www.dukestreetart.ie and is also presented by Saatchi at www.saatchiart.com
Brian Palm is also a highly regarded professional musician of international renown.
Brianpalm51@gmail.com
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/brian-palm/47/414/245 http
For details of all other events see here:
https://www.eventbrite.ie/o/the-sean-ocasey-festival-17781759064