IRA play to be shown next month

Andersonstown News

By Evan Short

26/02/2007


The last hours of a West Belfast IRA volunteer's life are to be acted out in a moving play to be shown next month in the Roddy McCorley club on the Glen Road.
Written and directed by former prisoner Roseleen Walsh, 'Death of an IRA Volunteer' tells the story of West Belfast man Seán McDermott who was fatally injured after being shot by the RUC during an operation.
Seán had been on active service with his girlfriend, Mairead Farrell, who was later shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar in 1988, and Kieran Doherty, who was later to die in the 1981 hunger strike, when he was shot trying to hijack a car.
The house he had entered was that of an RUC reservist who lured Seán into his bedroom and shot him with his personal protection weapon. Seán returned fire injuring the policeman in the hand. As he lay dying he called to Kieran Doherty not to follow him upstairs because the RUC man had the door covered, thereby saving his comrade’s life.

Bravery
It was this incident that inspired Roseleen to write the play, so she could tell a new generation the story of Seán McDermott.
"My aim is to bring Séan to the attention of people to perpetuate the republican cause and the memory of the patriot dead. I want to bring to the attention of people the life and death of an IRA man and the cause of Irish freedom.
"Seán was a revolutionary who instructed his comrade to go and leave him because he knew the RUC man had the door covered.
"It must have been very hard for Seán, it was a terrible situation but he was a soldier and saved the life of his comrade."
Taking on the role of Séan is Conall McCorry. A student studying acting at BIFHE, at 21 he is a year older than Seán McDermott when he died. He said it was a difficult prospect playing a character who many in the audience were friends with, and even related to.
"This is very different to anything I have done before because he is a real person whose friends will be watching. But that also helped me develop the character because I could use their knowledge.
"Although I don't look anything like him I have been told my stubbornness goes well with the character."
19-year-old Angela Morris plays the role of Marian, a close friend of Seán’s in the period in which the play is set.
Death of an IRA Volunteer is at 7.30pm on March 26. Tickets, priced £5, are available now from the Roddy’s, Kolormaster and the Andersonstown Social Club.