Wexford Drama Group to stage award winning play in New Ross ahead of All Ireland finals
The members have had a successful run with the production in the ADCI Drama Festival circuit, which has also qualified for the Open All Ireland Drama finals in Athlone, taking place this month.
Skylight is a beautiful, modern love story by David Hare. Set over one single evening in 1995 it's the story of Kyra, an idealistic young teacher who finds herself confronted by her former lover, multi-millionaire Tom. The couple search for common ground and perhaps a road back to each other.
The play is directed by multi-award winning director, Paul Walsh and stars Andy Doyle, Conor Farrell and New Ross' own Seona O'Connor.
Speaking about the upcoming festival, Mr Walsh said: 'The first time I was part of the All-Ireland Drama Festival was 2007 and I couldn't believe the level of margin in the air and it's something I have felt on every visit since.
'Being part of the 2025 line-up is very special, we are doing a play I adore with a fantastic cast and crew. The line-up of plays is phenomenal and we are honoured to be part of it. To my cast and crew, getting to perform in Athlone is the beautiful gift we get at the end of a ten month journey and I know we intend to enjoy every minute.'
Mr Walsh said he's 'delighted' that Wexford Drama Group is in a position to bring Skylight to the people of New Ross at St Michael's Theatre before their Athlone venture.
The production will take to the stage on Saturday, May 10, at 7.30 p.m. and tickets can be purchased through the theatre on (051) 421 255.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Examiner
a day ago
- Irish Examiner
Thinking global and acting local sees our musical traditions survive and thrive
'Think global, act local': the phrase was coined in the 1970s, gained new currency in the '90s and remains relevant today. Think global — in other words, big picture, broad view, the important things — and act on an individual and community level. Its original authors meant it environmentally, but it can apply to all sorts of things. Irish arts and culture, for instance. As with every other indigenous culture, especially smaller nations', our music and dancing and language have been essentially under siege for decades in an increasingly homogenised, connected, corporatised global village. The huge demographic and sociocultural change of immigration also changes the cultural landscape in numerous ways. This isn't to get into the rights or wrongs of that, just to state an obvious fact: indigenous arts and culture are altered, everywhere and every time, as populations change. This is a depressing situation. Whenever the world loses any of its remarkable range and richness of traditions is depressing. But that's what we might call 'global' — what about local? What can you or I do about it, here and now? How can we help Irish arts to survive and thrive? Musicians from local Comhaltas groups at the official opening of Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in Wexford Town. I give you Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann. The kind of rare people giving words like 'organisation', 'bureaucracy' and 'non-profit' a good name. Comhaltas was founded in 1951 by a group of musicians, concerned Irish trad was in decline. It now has 400+ branches around the world, promoting and preserving our music, dancing and language. It runs weekly classes, periodic events and celebrations and sessions, and annual competitions. We're currently gearing up in Clare for the County Fleadh, from Sunday June 8. Do well in that and it's onto the Munsters in Cork in July, and who knows? Maybe All-Ireland glory in Wexford this August. As the song goes, it's the most wonderful time of the year. Comhaltas has branches in places you'd expect — US, UK, Australia — and some you might not: Colombia, Singapore, Patagonia, Japan. (Irish trad is massive in Japan especially, thanks mainly to Comhaltas. How's that for thinking global?) Performers from Comhaltas na Dúglaise at Cork Airport ahead of Fleadh Cheoil Chorcaí 2024. And it's fantastic in what it does, the definition of 'volunteer spirit'; it's making the world a better place, one local step at a time, without asking or needing to be paid. Though that makes it all sound so worthy and po-faced, and getting involved in Comhaltas really isn't like that at all. It's fun. It's craic. It's meeting people and doing things. It's hefting chairs around a hall for the grúpa cheoil to assemble. It's handing out wristbands for the fleadh. It's WhatsApp groups and Facebook photos and driving to rehearsals. It's toting a harp case through a crowd and hoping to Jesus nobody bangs off the instrument — these things cost a lot of money. It's reuniting lost fiddle bows with their owner and waiting nervously with other parents for competition results. It's negotiating complex timetables so you can watch your kid's u15 group and still make the finale of the senior sean nós dancing. It's realising sean nós, contrary to preconceptions, is an absolutely kick-ass style of dancing and how did this brilliant artform elude your attention until now? One remarkable feature of Comhaltas, and traditional arts in general, is how it brings genuine superstars of the genre to the grassroots level — globally renowned names and local involvement. In my own case, for example, the Kilfenora Céilí Band were formed 30 minutes from where I live. In trad terms, they're megastars: they've played abroad (including the Glastonbury festival), been on the Late Late Show several times, performed at the National Concert Hall and other prestigious venues. Mike Dunning performs with his grandson LJ Kelly from Athlone on the opening day of Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath. Picture: Andres Poveda And I know several of them for years — just through normal life, and engagement with Comhaltas. They live locally. They teach my kids music and/or steer groups through competition. They're neighbours and friends. Our children play sport together. "One is a teacher in a nearby secondary. (Another is Sharon Shannon's brother, incidentally; he's in a neighbouring branch, and there's great friendly rivalry every summer.) Members of Newcestown Comhaltas. Picture: Brian Lougheed And it's mad, you're chatting to these people about the humdrum stuff of day-to-day and then they might say something like, 'Sorry, we have to head off, we've to be in RTÉ by seven'. I love that. It's what life should be about, really: incredibly talented artists, but also regular people who are deeply engaged on a local level. It's the kind of thing you only really get in 'roots' music. The rock equivalent would be The Edge teaching your kids guitar at the community hall, or Taylor Swift administrating a WhatsApp group called 'U12 county final 2025'. Funny, I was never a trad person growing up, and in fact still today am far more likely to listen to, or (badly) play, rock music or electronica or almost anything else, really, on CD or radio or YouTube. But there's something magical about trad music and dance, when it's live and in person; when you're involved to some degree, not just passively consuming. It's global, it's local, it's magical, it's Comhaltas. Fleadh Cheoil an Chláir takes place in Ennis this weekend. See for information
RTÉ News
2 days ago
- RTÉ News
Hell for Leather: How we made RTÉ's epic new GAA series
Colm O'Callaghan, RTÉ's Head of Specialist Factual Content, introduces Hell for Leather, an epic new 5-part RTÉ One series, delving into the role of Gaelic football in the sporting, cultural and social history of modern Ireland. RTÉ's history of hurling series The Game was first broadcast in May 2018. Made by Crossing the Line Productions and directed by Gerry Nelson, it was a cinematic and wide-ranging undertaking that, in its style, execution and ambition, resonated quickly. I've written previously here about why we commissioned it. As soon as the curtain came down on that series, our thoughts turned quickly to an obvious next step: a similar strand about Gaelic football. The seven years its taken to finally get that five-parter - Hell for Leather - to air, is worthy of a drama serial in itself and there were times when I felt we were never going to see it home at all. Needless to say, I'm glad we stayed the journey. As tends to be case with large-scale commissioned projects, I took many meetings and did an awful lot of talking before even formally asking RTÉ to consider supporting it. The primary issue was with what had just gone before it and with how effectively The Game had landed. Should we even bother, I asked the creative team at Crossing the Line, to attempt something similar with a sport often regarded by purists as the less aesthetic and less skilful of the family of national games? Any misgivings I had were quickly put to bed by a couple of trusted friends and regular sounding boards. Michael Moynihan and Diarmuid O'Donovan are fellow clubmen of mine from the fabled Glen Rovers on the northside of Cork city, even if Diarmuid is arguably better known for his involvement with the football side of that club, Saint Nicholas, and his work in a variety of roles at county level. Sharp, serious men both, they sketched out a provisional list of potential themes, topics, chapters and cast members for the team to chew over and flesh out. They didn't so much ease my mind as bend it in a variety of directions and, by doing so, turned much of what I'd ever thought about Gaelic football on its head. The game in Ulster, industry and All-Ireland success in the midlands, the eventual dawning of the women's game, Kerry's eternal majesty, the Jacks and the Culchies, Dulchies, Heffernan, Dwyer, the mighty men from Down, the mighty women of Cork. Seán Boylan, Mick O'Connell, the golden age of wireless, Sister Pauline Gibbons, Jim McGuinness and Jim Gavin. Bringing boardroom thinking to breeze-blocked dressing rooms. Renaissance, reformation, age of empires, true leaders and the days of our lives: it was up to director Gerry Nelson to shape the mine of history, some of it happening before him in real time, into tangible blocks. Sport is often seen as a reflection of life and, in this regard, its possible to trace the development of modern Ireland since way before independence through the prism of Gaelic football. Stitching this editorial thread into the heart of Hell for Leather was always a tall order but one that producers John Murray, Jessica McGurk and Siobhán Ward managed with typical elan. So in as much as the series tracks the evolution and history of the game as comprehensively as time allows, it also tells a story of Ireland. With The Game already under the belts of the production team – as well as 2020's one-off, Christy Ring: Man and Ball – the doors opened far more easily this time around. Jarlath Burns, who has since become the most recent Uachtarán of Cumann Lúthchleas Gael, was an enthusiastic voice from early on and helped unlock a variety of editorial lines. In every club and parish that we approached during the long gestation of this series – and there were many – the welcome was fierce and the humour was always good. So, what kept us? When we first discussed the potential for a series, I'm not sure if any of us expected the production period to endure for so long. But then neither could we have foreseen Covid, an All-Ireland final played during a lockdown and the consequences for sport, film-making and life in general during that time. Projects of this scale also require multiple funding and finance strands too and, to this end, we're grateful to Coimisiún na Meán, the Department of Finance, the Gaelic Athletic Association and to Collen, our generous sponsors, without whom the project could never have taken flight. And then there's the more mundane and practical stuff. Many of those featured in the series are proud, fabled former players for whom modesty has long prevented them from opening up about their own heroics and the scale of their achievements. The likes of Mick O'Connell, Seán O'Neill, Jimmy Gray and Seán Murphy are among many who decorate this production but for whom numerous site visits and no little persuasion was necessary. Others, despite our best and enduring efforts, just couldn't or wouldn't commit. All history is contestable, of course, and this too is the case with Hell for Leather. How can one realistically do justice to such a varied and complicated past in just 250 minutes of airtime? It is, therefore, to the credit of Gerry Nelson and series editor Andrew Hearne that the series delivers far more than the sum of its parts and still stays true to its purpose as agreed way back at the start. Gaelic football, flush with its recent re-enhancements, is enjoying a renewed sense of freedom, and talk of its latest existential crisis has abated, at least for now. As the former Kerry captain, Dara Ó Cinnéide told Nelson, "at the end of the day it's a game … but it's this bloody game we love so much". As a reminder about why Gaelic football's well-being matters, Hell for Leather is as good a starting point as any.
The Irish Sun
2 days ago
- The Irish Sun
Star singer to perform at Gaelic Grounds as warm-up for mouth-watering Munster final between Cork & Limerick
GAVIN James will set the scene for Saturday's Munster final spectacular by playing a 40-minute warm-up set. There is the distinct possibility that Limerick are "in the heads" of their Cork foes considering they 3 Once again the TUS Gaelic Grounds in Limerick will play host to the rivals 3 Gavin James is set to serve as the warm-up act before hurling takes centre stage And ahead of Saturday's 6pm throw-in Limerick GAA has announced that Dublin singer-songwriter James will get the occasion going from 4.35pm. "Gates will open on Saturday June 7 at 4pm. "Honing his performing and song writing gifts as a busker and pub performer in Dublin, to sold out world tours, Gavin's come a long way. Read More On GAA "James has built a community of fans that have seen his music streamed three billion times across the globe and earn diamond and platinum records in multiple countries. "He has also sold more than 250,000 tickets (and counting) worldwide with a live show that is as transporting as it is uplifting. "This June, James returns with a new single 'Cherry Cola', a precursor to a new album of original material that he's recording in a studio on a mountain outside his home city of Dublin." Earlier this week, Tipperary great Patrick 'Bonner' Maher Most read in GAA Hurling Speaking at the Electric Ireland All-Ireland Minor Championship launch, he said: 'I think Cork should come back. They'll have a bit of a bite after what happened in the last game. 'I'm hoping for a classic Munster final, fire and brimstone, where two teams go hammer-and-tongs at each other. Tipperary GAA star 'had to do live apology on RTE' the day after cursing during All-Ireland interview - 'It's going to be a hard one to call. Both of them are going to go hard at each other and see where the pieces fall. 'Judging on the last day, you'd say Limerick are one or two points ahead. 'But I wouldn't write off Cork because those boys are well able to play.' Limerick, who have won five All-Irelands and six Munster titles since 2018, are often placed in opposition to Brian Cody's four-in-a-row Kilkenny crop in debates over the greatest hurling team of all time. 3 Maher at the 2025 Electric Ireland GAA All-Ireland Minor Championship launch Credit: Inpho Maher came up against John Kiely's Limerick on several occasions in the latter half of his career, having also been part of the Tipp side who scuppered the Cats' quest for a fifth consecutive Liam MacCarthy Cup in 2010. But the three-time All-Ireland winner said: 'It's very hard to compare a team in one period to a team in the current period. 'There are so many variables, it's hard to say if they're as good or better than that Kilkenny team. 'I was lucky enough, or unlucky enough, to play against both. For their time and their moment playing, they're the best team that's there at that moment. 'I wouldn't compare against the Kilkenny team because they were a different animal and that was in their time. They're two serious outfits.'
