Cork actor Michael Patric on Cailín Ciúin, and his new role as Seán Moylan
Michael Patric as Seán Moylan at Cork Arts Theatre.
He shone in a memorable performance in An Cailín Ciúin, the little Irish movie that made it all the way to the Oscars. Now actor Michael Patric is bringing us a very different role - that of real-life revolutionary Seán Moylan - in a new one-man show.
The Newmarket actor is telling the extraordinary story of Moylan, a senior officer of the Irish Republican Army who headed the Newmarket division following the Easter Rising, before taking part in both the War of Independence and the Irish Civil War. He would later become a prominent Fianna Fáil politician.
“I was aware that he was a revolutionary and then a politician,” says Patric of first exploring the Irishman’s story. “I was looking at doing something on him and I wanted to do something about somebody local, because we've a beautiful new venue in Newmarket [Cultúrlann, where the play was recently staged]. I started reading about him, and I thought he was fascinating.
“Sheila O'Sullivan, who's a local historian, brought it back to me. When that happens I just take it as a sign and I looked into it more.”
Based around Moylan’s reports to the Bureau of Military History, Patric spent months researching and writing the one-man show, taking audiences through the dramatic events of the period.
“He's a fascinating man. He was charismatic, wishing and sensitive. But at the same time, he was no nonsense and intolerant of anything that got in the way of his objective or the movement’s objectives.
“He was a carpenter but he was self educated, he made sure that he was extremely well read. He taught himself to speak Irish, obviously, at the time that Irish was not taught in the schools in this country. And he made sure that he was fluent in Irish, so he went to the Gaeltacht as much as he could and upskilled his Irish as often as he could. All this while running a war from the saddle of a bicycle.”
Moylan, the actor says, found the reports a rich source for the play. They were submitted when he was in his sixties and Patric spent eight months researching them and cross-referencing them with other accounts of similar events. As an actor, he adds, he felt an even deeper sense of responsibility in depicting somebody who has lived.
“It's an in depth account of the War of Independence,” he says of the reports. “He was supposed to do a similar thing for the Civil War, but didn't and I would imagine that's because it was too painful. Maybe life just got in the way and he didn't have time. I can't be sure, but I suspect it's the former.
“He has a child who's still alive. A lot of people I know in this area are related to him - not just him but to all the other members of that battalion and brigade.
“You want to be respectful and pay tribute to the dead but also not to offend the living and it's a fine balance.
“People sacrificed enormously so that we could end up here and so that we could, for instance, have an Irish-language film at the Oscars and the BAFTAS this year.”
That film, of course, was An Cailín Ciúin, the story of a young girl who experiences a transformative summer in 1980s Ireland and which continues to beguile audiences all over the world.
Patric, who plays Cáit’s troubled father, has recently returned from The Oscars with his colleagues and friends following the film’s extraordinary run of success. What was the experience of being in the company of Hollywood A-listers on the Oscars carpet like?
“You're looking at people, saying: ‘They’re just human beings’. Granted, they're extremely wealthy and ridiculously well groomed human beings! But still human beings. It was great fun - the most fun part of it was the group that we had all travelling together and all enjoying it and just celebrating a special film.
“Lovely as well that there were so many Irish nominees, such a strong Irish presence around. I felt like I was in Dublin - I don't remember hearing any American accents during the week. There was a definite sense of that around and then the lads from An Irish Goodbye receiving their Oscar and the happy birthday to James Martin. It was very special to see all of that happen.
“A highlight of my week in Los Angeles was at the Oscar Wilde awards, seeing Colm and Cleona [the film’s writer-director and producer] projected large onto the side of a building in Hollywood making typically unselfish speeches about the making of the film. At the same time having the confidence and belief in their own ability, while having the humility that they always have, that's just in them.”
- Seán Moylan, Irish Revolutionary runs at Cork Arts Theatre, Carroll's Quay, from Tuesday, March 28 – Saturday, April 1
