Blue Raincoat Theatre Company Presents TINTOWN At The Everyman

Tintown premiered at The Factory Space in April 2019. Written and performed by actor Bob Kelly, directed by Niall Henry, sound design by Joe Hunt and set and lighting design by Diarmuid Ó Flaherty, Tintown is the story of a Dubliner who joined the IRA as a young man in the 30's, was interned during WW2 and bore witness to the IRA's decline and eventual collapse within the Curragh Camp.

"Bob wrote Tintown while working with the Hawks Well as Artist in Residence a few years ago and we are very happy at Blue Raincoat to have given it its premier in Sligo" says Niall Henry, Artistic Director. "It is a compelling story which encompasses our violent past, the development of socialism and fascism within Ireland, and the political contradictions and absurdities of the time.The piece has been meticulously researched through access to rare internee interviews."

"Most people are aware of K-Lines, the Tintown extension at The Curragh where a handful of downed British and German airmen were held during WW2; but the larger group of IRA internees that were held next door don't excite the same feelings of romanticism and are not as easy to fit into our national story" comments actor and writer Bob Kelly. "They were not terrorists in the clear cut sense of the later IRA; many were civil war veterans, some had fought in 1916, some were non-violent socialists. They still believed in the possibility of an Irish Republic - not just as a geographic ideal, but as a socialist ideal, a secular ideal - and a far cry from the theocratic Free State entity that had recently declared itself a Republic. The story is a stark reminder of uncomfortable aspects of our history; the long echoes of the civil war, our complex relationship with terrorism, the insidious hold the church had over Irish civic policy - and it's ongoing struggle to maintain it."

Tintown comes to The Everyman, Cork, for one night only, 8pm, Sunday 9th February. Tickets €20, concession €18 or students €9 available from The Everyman Box Office or online at everymancork.com

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