Dorothy’s Prison Notebooks
In 2018, actor Sharon Mc Ardle and playwright Declan Gorman set out to create a theatre piece based on diaries kept by revolutionary and writer Dorothy Macardle during her incarceration at the time of the Irish Civil War. This documentary traces their voyage deep into Dorothy’s writings, and via archival sources to the gaol cell in Kilmainham where she was held and back again to the rehearsal room where the performance starts to take shape.
Dorothy Macardle is remembered as author of The Irish Republic, a history of the foundation of the State from a Republican perspective. Already an Abbey playwright at the time of her arrest, she went on to author gothic horror novels including The Uninvited which became a major Hollywood film. Her gaol diaries offer extraordinary insights into the evolving consciousness, dreams and psychic experiences of an emerging writer of immense gifts, whose importance in the shaping of modern Ireland has only recently been acknowledged.
Dorothy Mac Ardle is the subject of the current temporary exhibition in Kilmainham Gaol. Unsurrendered Spirits: The Prison Writings of Dorothy Macardle featuring Before Me In A Dream, a short film by Sharon McArdle runs until December this year.
Presenter – Eleanor Methven
Writer & Director – Declan Gorman
Research & Performer – Sharon Mc Ardle
Singer Sophie Coyle
Sound recordist – Ross Carew
Editor – Gerry Horan Contact Studio
Producer – Patricia Baker – Curious Broadcast
Series Producer: Eoin O Kelly
A *DMAPP Production for RTÉ lyric fm funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland
(First broadcast 6th November 2022)
RTÉ lyric fm, Sunday 17th November, 6pm-7pm
