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Newpoint Players will perform the Trial of Thomas D'Arcy McGee; Irish Rebel – Canadian Patriot at Stormont's Senate Chamber on Friday 7 November at 7pm, to mark the bicentenary of the birth of the Carlingford-born man who became one of the founding fathers of Canada.
Thomas D'Arcy McGee was born 13 April 1825 in Carlingford and to mark the bicentenary of his birth this play has already been performed this year in Ottawa, Montreal, Wexford and Dublin, all cities associated with McGee, and it now comes to Belfast.
The play was written by Newry man Anthony Russell and the premise is that Thomas D'Arcy McGee, who lived from 1825 to 1868, is called from the grave to answer, in the Court of History, the charge that he committed treason against Ireland and her people. The prosecutor is John Mitchel, who lived from 1815 to 1875, an unrepentant physical force republican from Young Ireland and the Fenians. Mitchel supported both the American confederacy and the reopening of the African slave trade.
Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, who lived from 1816 to 1903 and was a former prime minister of Victoria who helped found and edit the radical Nation newspaper, defends Thomas D'Arcy McGee against the charge of treason. Both lawyers have returned from the grave for the occasion.
John A. Macdonald, who lived from 1815 to 1891, a founding father of the Canadian Confederation and its first prime minister 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, whom he married in 1847, is called as a witness for the defence. The judge is Dionysus Cronos who was present at the trial of Socrates.
The audience acts as the jury, and in Wexford and Dublin the jury was chaired by the Canadian ambassadors to Ireland. In Russell's trial plays, of which there are seven, the jury's decision can be surprising. As part of the West Belfast Festival, when he was tried on both the Falls and Shankill Roads, P.H. Pearse was found not guilty on the Shankill Road.
The performance brings history to life with all of the ghosts aware of what has happened in the world since they entered the grave and commenting accordingly, with the protocol of an earthly court loosely applied throughout.
Free Tickets are available for the performance at www.eventbrite.co.uk
