MAKING MEDIA
MAKING MEDIA
FILM
DRAMA
THROUGH
THE EYES
OF A
CHILD
Above and below: Pupils from St Attracts’a NS, filming their JFK project, based on the story of Michael McGrath
(pictured below right with his grandson Jake, and classmates), who helped form the guard of honour at JFK’s funeral.
S
EAN O’CASEY was a famous Irish
playwright, who lived from 18081964. Much of his work focussed
on the impoverished Dublin
working classes in the early part of the
20th century. His father died young, and
Sean suffered much the same poverty as he
wrote about in his plays.
Although a nationalist, he did not
support the idea of violent rebellion and, in
the years running up to 1916, he was more
concerned that efforts focus on helping the
poor of Dublin.
The Plough and the Stars, one of his
best-known plays, is set in Dublin’s
tenements in 1915 and 1916. The tenements
described filthy, overcrowded and diseaseridden houses in the city slums.
The youngest character is Mollser,
who lives in a tenement with her mother.
Although Mollser is 15, she looks only 10
because she was dying of TB, often called
consumption, a highly infectious disease
that usually affects the lung. In 1905, 16
out of every 100 deaths in Ireland were
from TB, which spread easily through
overcrowded tenements, mainly among the
15-25 age group.
Mollser says very little in The Plough
and the Stars — only about 12 lines — but
she finds a powerful voice in Me, Mollser,
a monologue , by Ali White, retelling The
Plough and the Stars through her eyes.
As part of the Ireland 2016 Centenary
Programme, the Department of Education
and Skills is funding the creation of
three touring productions to provide
performances of Me, Mollser to pupils aged
10 and over, in primary and post-primary
schools. Further information
is available via email to
[email protected].
Each production will stage 10 shows a
week, which means there will be about
30 shows weekly around the country
over the January to March period. “Very
much depends on the response,” said Phil
Kingston of the Abbey Theatre. Visits will
take place either directly in schools or in
local arts venues.
As well as a 30-minute performance, the
visit by the Abbey team also involves a preshow discussion and a 15 minute workshop
afterwards.
HOW TO
ENTER
THE IRELAND 2016
ALL-ISLAND
SCHOOLS’ DRAMA
COMPETITION
A
Inset top: ‘Me, Mollser’ cartoon images.
Above: Mothers chatting at the entrance
to a tenement building in Dublin, c 1945.
Right: Mary-Lou McCarthy in the original
2013 production of ‘Me, Mollser’.
COURTESY ABBEY THEATRE, GETTY IMAGES
AND NEIL HARRISON
Since its first production in 2013, Me,
Mollser has been seen by more than 2,500
children and has visited more than 100
schools. “Once a school sees it, they tell
their friends,” says Phil Kingston.
Me, Mollser is the first in the Abbey’s
‘Priming the Canon’ project, one of a series
of specially-commissioned monologues
designed to introduce characters in Irish
theatre to young audiences.
18 | Irish Independent 1916 Youth and Imagination Programme
PARTNERSHIP between the
Department of Education
and Skills, RTÉ and the Abbey
Theatre invites primary schools
to write a short drama (up to 10
minutes) based on the events of
1916, and to submit a 60-second
filmed extract and a synopsis of
their play to a judging panel. A
shortlist of entries will be made
available via RTÉ Swipe TV, with
an online public vote to decide
the winners.
The drama can be based
on any of the social, cultural,
military or political dimensions
of 1916, including the Easter
Rising or an event from World
War I during 1916.
It can be written and
performed in Irish or English.
RTÉ and the Abbey Theatre
will provide resource packs for
teachers and children, including
video and PDF tutorials online
at www.abbeytheatre.ie,
www.rte.ie/swipetv, and on
Scoilnet. The winning play
will be performed to students’
family and friends at the Abbey,
and will be filmed by RTÉ for
broadcast on Swipe TV.
Irish Independent I 15 October 2015
MAKE HISTORY — MAKE A MOVIE
W
HEN the pupils of St Attracta’s
National School, Charlestown,
Co Mayo rose to the challenge of
making their own movie, they didn’t have
to look too far for their inspiration.
Sitting in their classrooms were direct
links to one of the most famous world
events of the 20th century, the funeral of
US President John F Kennedy, who was
assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
Among the 152 pupils are the grandson
and grand-daughters of local man, Michael
McGrath, who helped form the guard of
honour for President Kennedy’s funeral in
November 1963.
Then 19, Michael was one of 26 young
Irish army cadets who travelled to the US,
following a special request from President
Kennedy’s widow, Jacqueline, that they
form a guard of honour at his funeral in
Arlington Cemetery, Washington.
She did so because, only months
earlier, on his celebrated visit back to
the country of his forefathers, President
Kennedy had been highly impressed with
the funeral drill he saw when he came
to pay his respects at the Arbour Hill
military cemetery in Dublin — burial
place of executed 1916 leaders.
Michael recalls that not only were
they participants, but the Irish cadets
were given prime position and stood only
metres away from the Kennedy family.
St Attracta’s principal Brian
McDermott understood what
a great story it was, and
his pupils embraced it with
gusto as their entry for the
Fís Film Project, an initiative
encouraging primary schools
to explore the medium of film:
“I got him to come down to the
kids and we scoped all the questions we
needed from him. We took it from the
angle of his story.”
The fifth and sixth class pupils,
including Michael’s grandson Jake (12)
got the job of producing the film, while
third and fourth classes participated in
crowd scenes. Jake’s siblings, Jessica,
Roisin and Cian are also pupils at the
school and an older brother, Darragh is a
past pupil.
Their Back in the Springtime film tells
the story of Irish emigration,
the links between the Kennedy
family and Ireland, and how the
visit helped to put Ireland on
the world map. Pupils mixed
their own scenes with footage
of the funeral they found on
YouTube.
“The range of learning
possibilities was fantastic — from history
to communication to teamwork. What
really came to the fore was the different
strengths of individual pupils,” said Mr
McDermott.
Michael McGrath said it was wonderful
to work with the pupils: “They were
so immersed in it; they asked so many
questions, it was amazing. They made
history come alive.”
Q ‘Back in the Springtime’ is a finalist
in the National FÍS Film Festival in the
Helix Theatre on November 3. The school
is already planning its 1916 Fís project
Q Ireland 2016 film award: there
will be two prizes for 1916 based
films in the 2016 Fís Film Festival
competition. Full details will be on
www.fisfilmproject.ie
The new Irish: telling the story of all the nation’s children
IRELAND has become an ethnically
and culturally diverse country, and
nowhere is that richness better
reflected than in the country’s schools.
At last count, there are more than
100,000 pupils born outside of Ireland
enrolled in primary and post-primary
schools — that’s about 12pc, or one in
eight, of the school-going population.
In the 2014/2015 academic year,
60,969 primary school pupils were
recorded as having a nationality other
than Irish. They are from all over the
world, including almost 10,000 from
15 October 2015 I Irish Independent
Asia, more than 9,000 from Africa,
about 2,300 from another State in
Europe other than the EU, and 782 from
Latin or South America.
Meanwhile, about 44,000 postprimary students are of non-Irish
origin, from as many as about 180
countries. After the UK, the biggest
representation is from Poland, followed
by Nigeria, Lithuania, USA, Philippines
and Spain.
School projects under the banner of
the 1916 centenary programme will be a
legacy for future generations, offering
a snapshot of Ireland at a particular
time in its history and, thanks to
modern technology, an easy facility to
store it forever.
The network of 4,000 primary and
post-primary schools has a reach
into communities the length and
breadth of the country like nothing
else. So, schools are uniquely
positioned to reflect back the story of
Ireland in 2016.
While the centenary programme
is commemorating events of 100
years ago in Ireland, it also provides
an opportunity for those whose
forefathers were not Irish to reflect on
their history and to share their stories
and journeys.
Through the various initiatives in
the 2016 Schools’ Programme, such as
the Ancestry Project, the Proclamation
for a New Generation, The Schools’
Collection 2016, the film, art, drama
and song competitions, there are
platforms for pupils with non-Irish
backgrounds to weave their histories
and perspectives into the tapestry that
is the new Ireland.
Irish Independent 1916 Youth and Imagination Programme | 19