‘Hairy Jaysus’ by Donal O’Kelly
8pm, 6 March 2016, RTÉ Radio 1
The radio adaptation of Donal O’Kelly’s acclaimed stage production. Frank Sheehy-Skeffington, the pint-sized livewire dubbed ‘Hairy Jaysus’ by his friend James Joyce, along with his wife Hanna relentlessly challenged the societal paralysis Joyce fled.
A campaigner for Votes for Women and against recruitment for The Great War, he was jailed for sedition in 1915 and went on hunger-and-thirst strike until released. He was summarily executed in Portobello Barracks Dublin during the Easter Rising of 1916, having been arrested while trying to stop the looting. Frank was often called a crank.
He wasn’t offended; he said a crank is a small instrument that makes revolutions. In Hairy Jaysus the tragedy of his enforced via dolorosa through Rathmines is ruminated on by Trod, a homeless guy begging beside an Irish bank ATM in present-day Rathmines.
Written and performed by Donal O’Kelly
Original music by Ellen Cranitch
Sound supervision: Damian Chennells
Producer: Kevin Brew
Series Producer: Kevin Reynolds