Play lifts lid on Pirates of the Carbery
The historical drama, We Who Are Blameless, focusing on the Sack of Baltimore, will be performed in the village’s castle — now a family home — to coincide with the Baltimore Pirate Festival, which runs from today.
The play will also be staged at the O’Driscoll clan gathering next weekend.
Scripted by local playwright and amateur historian, Rupert Stutchbury, the play focuses on the 1631 raid by Algerian pirates who captured both locals and English settlers, many of whom were then forced to spend their lives in slavery in north Africa.
However, during his research into the life of Richard Boyle, the first Earl of Cork, Stutchbury the earl’s connection with the Baltimore attack, and found that Algerian pirates may not be solely to blame for the raid.
The play will be performed over six nights in the McCarthy family home, the restored Dún na Séad Castle, in the heart of the village.
See the Baltimore Drama Group Facebook page to reserve tickets.
Meanwhile, a conference in UCC this weekend will examine Boyle’s colourful career from 1566 to 1643.
The conference will be attended by William Cavendish — son of the duke of Devonshire and a descendant of Boyle.
Long credited with being one of the major political figures of his time, Boyle was much more besides, and his activities as a land-grabber, developer, and entrepreneur left an enduring physical legacy which can still be seen today in the landscape of Munster.
A distinguished panel of international speakers will attempt to lift the lid on neglected and “hidden” aspects of Boyle’s controversial activities.
