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Art and history rhyme in Anthony Russell's political and historical fantasy, 'The Trial of P. H. Pearse in the Court of History', which will be performed in Finegan and Son's Café, Kildare Street, Newry by Newpoint Players on Tuesday, 17 February at 7.30pm.
This imaginative and challenging play, presented as part of the Old Newry Season, sees Padraic Pearse called from the grave to answer, in the Court of History, the charge that he committed treason against the People of Ireland by ignoring their democratic wishes and leading a violent rebellion.
The prosecutor is Thomas D'Arcy McGee (1825-1868), a former Irish rebel who became the founding father of the Canadian Confederation. He was assassinated following his bitter condemnation of the 1866 Fenian Invasion of Canada. John Mitchel (1815-1875), the unrepentant physical force republican from Young Ireland, the Fenians and the slave owning Confederacy, is called by Pearse to defend him.
Pearse's mother also returns to speak of her son's noble character, whilst Professor Eoin MacNeill, who tried to call off the rising, is the witness for the prosecution. All of the shades are aware of what has happened in the world since they departed from it, with the audience acting as the jury.
In asking if the 1916 Rising was necessary and if Pearse can be held responsible for the turmoil of the last 100 years, McGee and Mitchel exchange historical facts and insults with style and humour.
The Trial of P H Pearse before the Court of History has been performed at Féile an Phobail, in Newry Courthouse, Carlingford Courthouse near McGee's birthplace, Dublin in the house where Pearse was born, in Brownlow House, Ireland's largest Orange Hall, in East Belfast, on the Shankill Road where Pearse was found not guilty, and in Winnipeg, Montreal and Ottawa.
It is one of seven Trial plays by Anthony Russell, retired from Anglia Ruskin and the author of 'Between Two Flags: John Mitchel and Jenny Verner', and the co-editor of 'John Mitchel, Ulster and the Great Famine', both published by Irish Academic Press. James Craig will be tried in the same venue in April.
Tickets for both plays are available by emailing: tomandros@btinternet.com.
