This article is from page 12 of the 2013-12-03 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
A PLAY by campaigning Clare author Patricia Burke Brogan received it American’s premier last week.
Burke Brogan has been a leading campaigner in the movement to expose the hidden truth behind the Magdalene Laundries for more than two decades.
The Kildysart native’s 1992 play ‘Eclipse’ is one of the first major times in which the story of the women housed in the Magdalene Laundries was brought to light.
Her 2002 play, ‘Stained Glass at Samhain’, which also deal with the Magdalene Laundries received its American premier at the University of Colorado in Denver last week.
Burke Brogan was a novice, or a trainee nun, at the Galway’s Mercy convent before she decided to leave the Church. During her time at the convent she witnessed first hand the plight of the women housed in the laundries and dedicated much of her life to highlighting their struggle – long before it was common to do so.
‘Stained Glass at Samhain’, which premiered in Ireland in 2002, also deals with the Magdalene Laundries but, in contrast to ‘Eclipse’, it takes the view point of an elderly, compas- sionate nun.
This nun, Sr Luke returns from the dead to visit the site of a former convent and laundry during the Celtic feast of Samhain as the buildings are being demolished to make way for the ‘Celtic Tiger’ boom.
She shares her life story with the audience via a series of monologues, while also interacting with
the Church authorities, the
penitent women and the
young, progressive convent
chaplain.
Over the last 20 years,
‘Eclipsed’ has become
the definitive work on the
Magdelene Laundries and
was a major infleunce for
the 2002 feature film, ‘The
Magdalene Sisters’.
The play has been trans
lated into many languages
from French to Japanese,
and been performed all
over the world, with a new
production scheduled for
Peru next year.