Adaptations: Commemoration and Contemporary Irish Theatre

Moran, James

Abstract

During the build-up to the centenary of the Easter Rising in 2016, the Irish media reported upon, and helped to generate, a number of controversies about the planned commemorations. For example, in the wake of the Queen of England’s visit to Ireland in 2011 – the first such by a British monarch in a century – commentators debated whether a member of the British royal family should be present at the GPO, which served as headquarters of the Rising, for the official Irish state event on Easter Sunday. Others argued about how to involve the grandchildren and relatives of the dead rebels, and disputed how to treat the revisionist opinions of figures such as the former Taoiseach John Bruton. Some criticised the launch of the government’s commemorative programme at the GPO in November 2014, when the minute-and-a half-long video that was made especially for that launch – a breezily corporate piece called ‘Ireland Inspires’ – featured the international rugby player Brian O’Driscoll scoring a try and other uplifting images of modern Ireland, but lacked any mention of the actual Easter Rising or any of its participants.

Citation

Moran, J. (2020). Adaptations: Commemoration and Contemporary Irish Theatre. In E. Falci, & P. Reynolds (Eds.), Irish Literature in Transition: 1980-2020 (152-167). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108564373.011

• Acceptance Date: Jan 3, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Feb 1, 2020
• Publication Date: Feb 28, 2020
• Deposit Date: Jan 9, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 2, 2020
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Pages: 152-167
• Book Title: Irish Literature in Transition: 1980-2020
• Chapter Number: 8
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108564373.011
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1457273
• Publisher URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/irish-literature-in-transition-19802020/adaptations-commemoration-and-contemporary-irish-theatre/E419EF604016D42BA7F79A436B29F54E