This article is from page 30 of the 2012-11-20 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 30 JPG
THE courage shown by pioneering author and broadcaster from Clare, the late Máiréad Ní Ghráda, will be celebrated in Glór in the coming weeks thanks to a series of workshops that built around her most acclaimed piece work.
The workshops on Ms Ní Ghráda’s play called ‘An Triail’ comes in the wake of the move by the Department of Education to include the work on the current syllabus for the Leaving Certificate Irish exam.
The workshops are being provided by Irish language enthusiast Fidelma McDonnell, starting this Wednesday and continuing for six weeks – a programme that’s seen as the first step towards a fully-blown production of the play in Glór next year.
“The play’s storyline features a single mother in 1960s rural Ireland who was forced to go into a Magdalene Laundry due to pressure from family and society around her,” reveals Ms McDonnell. “This theme was very controversial to write about at the time and Ms Ní Ghráda showed great courage in raising this subject through her writing.
“It is a great thing for a playwright from Clare to feature on the Leaving Cert and it will bring her work to the forefront of people’s consciousness once again,” adds Ms McDonnell.
Ms Ní Ghráda, who hailed from Kilmaley was the first female pre- senter on Ireland’s first national radio service, then known as 2RN that started broadcasting in 1926.
An Triail is thought to have been based on an incident near her home that Ms Ní Ghráda remembered from her youth: the victimisation of a pregnant young single girl while the man involved escaped condemnation.
While some people were shocked at the “filthy immoral” drama others saw it as being ahead of its time. Tomás MacAnna, who produced the play, praised it as the precursor of women’s lib. It still ranks with Brendan Behan’s ‘An Giall’ as the most successful play in the Irish language.