This article is from page 37 of the 2008-05-06 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 37 JPG
THE story of one of north Clare’s least celebrated superstars will be brought to dramatic life this evening at Glor in Ennis. “Submarine Man” tells the story of Liscannor’s John P Holland, inventor of the submarine and one of Ireland’s most remarkable engineers.
Written by Aidan Harney and di- rected by David Horan, the play tracks Holand’s life from his time as a school teacher in Clare to his in- volvement with the Fenians in New York, and his development of the submarine with the US navy.
“Holland, to me, is as intrepid an explorer as Sir Edmund Hillary on
Mount Everest, Neil Armstrong on the moon or Ernest Shackleton the great Antarctic explorer.
“Towards the end of the 1800s in the United States, in particular, but around the world there was a real race on to see who could conquer the mistress of the deep,” said writer Aidan Harney.
‘His story 1s simply the story of a man who had a dream and pursued it until he achieved it – although it nearly killed him along the way. I decided to write the play to try and make the life and times of this little- known man more accessible to peo- ple and to explore his contribution to Irish history.”
Harney’s early career was as a
journalist and actor, but he is now with Engineers Ireland. This love for engineering, writing and the stage made him the perfect person to bring Holland to the stage.
“It’s really an amazing story and the Fenian connection is incredible. When he arrived in New York in the 1870s, he got involved with Clan na Gael and, particularly, the famous O’Donovan Rossa.
“Rossa was so fascinated by Hol- land’s constant ramblings about the submarine and its potential as a weapon to solve the Irish question that he gave John Breslin, another very famous Fenian, and John De- voy, another huge figure of Irish his- tory, the job of working with Holland
to see if it was possible to build,” LoyeTebaLeCcremawlerIF
‘Fenian backers got nervous when Holland’s early prototype sank to the bottom of the Hudson river and almost killed poor Holland himself. They claimed he had built himself a coffin.
“When Holland spent a huge sum re-surfacing and repairing the sub- marine, the Fenians had a falling out and John Breslin, one night, actually stole the submarine from its moor- ings. Breslin forgot to seal the turret, the Fenian Ram, as it was known, subsequently flooded and sank.”
Submarine Man takes place in Glor this evening, May 6. Tickets are priced €18/€16.