All the world was a stage for Ireland’s rural drama groups

Rooted in parish communities, the movement promoted friendship, embraced acting and direction, helped people to think about rural and urban life (warts and all) and provided story lines that caused laughter, sadness, and sometimes controversy

Photos released 27 April 2015 Michael Harding (The Bull McCabe) in the 50th Anniversary production of The Field by John B Keane. The Gaiety Theatre April 23 - May 30, 2015. Photo: Patrick Redmond

ONE has only to look at the ‘putting on’ of a play in any country town or parish to learn more about the complexities, tensions, dreams, follies, and stubborn individualism of rural people.

Mícheál Ó hAodha, the former Radio Éireann drama-and-variety production director, wrote those perceptive words in a magazine article about the country’s amateur drama movement nearly 60 years ago.