Key roles of women depicted in unique dramatic offering
By Maurice Garvey
THE key role women played during the Easter Rising, was depicted in spectacular style by two actors at Ballyfermot Library on March 8.
Mairead Devlin and Mary O’Driscoll, from Carnation Theatre, played out multiple parts and historical enactments in a 55-minute play Midwife of a Nation.
The play was written in collaboration with Joe O’Byrne and with the support of Dublin City Libraries.
Those attending the interactive play, were encouraged to sing, dance, remember and join hands with the actors, as they jumped back in time to the birth of a nation.
Midwife of a Nation focuses on Nurse Elizabeth O’Farrell, a midwife at Holles Street Maternity Hospital, who is best known for delivering the surrender on the Easter Rising to the British barricade on Moore Street.
O’Farrell was also a member of Cumann na mBan, and acted as a dispatcher before and during the Rising – delivering bulletins and instructions to the rebel outposts around Dublin.
She was one of three women, including Winifred Carney, who remained in the GPO until the end of the Rising.
Along with her friend a fellow nurse Julia Grenan, she cared for the wounded including James Connolly.
On April 29, at 12.45pm, O’Farrell was handed a Red Cross insignia and a white flag and asked to deliver the surrender to the British military.
She emerged into heavy fire on Moore Street which abated when her white flag was recognised.
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