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Newpoint Players are expanding their horizons later this month with a trip to Dublin to perform Newry Man, Anthony Russell's production 'The Trial of Thomas D'Arcy McGee: Irish Rebel - Canadian Patriot'
The drama is being performed in the EPIC Museum in Dublin on Thursday 20 February at 5pm, just a 5 minute walk from Connolly Station so plenty of possibilities for a day out in Newry with the train home.
2025 Is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Thomas D'Arcy McGee. The Canadian Embassy's year of reflection on D'Arcy McGee begins at the event in the EPIC museum and Alison Le Claire, former Canadian Ambassador to Russia, will introduce the Thomas D'Arcy McGee performance and then chair the jury, as it decides, on the evidence presented, if building a new country is a betrayal of the old.
Directed by Newpoint's Donal O’Hanlon this humorous historical fantasy reflects on the legacy of one of Ireland’s most important, yet almost forgotten, emigrants, Thomas D’Arcy McGee.
In Canada Wexford’s Thomas D’Arcy McGee (1825–1868) is revered as a founding father, perhaps the founding father, of the country. In Ireland, he is either unknown or reviled as a traitor; a physical force republican turned colonial loyalist.
On the 200th anniversary of his birth, McGee is called from the grave to answer, in the Court of History, the charge that he committed treason against Ireland and her people.
Monaghan’s Sir Charles Gavan Duffy (1816-1903) a founder of the Nation and later Prime Minister of Victoria is McGee’s defence lawyer. Newry’s John Mitchel (1815-1875), an unrepentant physical force republican, American Confederate and enslaver is the prosecutor. He and Duffy, once friends, became lifelong enemies because of Mitchel’s support of violence and slavery.
John A. Mc Donald (1815-1891), the first prime minister of the Canadian Confederation, whose reputation is tarnished by his treatment of the first nations, is called as a witness for the prosecution. McGee’s long suffering and loyal wife, Mary Teresa Caffrey, is called as a witness for the defence.
All the ghosts are aware of what has happened in the world since they entered the grave and comment accordingly. The judge, Dionysus Cronos, was present at the trial of Socrates. The audience is the jury.
The event is free of charge but to be sure of entry please book your ticket at www.eventbrite.ie
