It’s Not Over
Nominated Best Director with Barry O’Connor at Irish Times Theatre Awards 2016
“It’s not an easy thing to take up a gun and go out and kill some person without strong convictions or justification”
IRA Green Book 1966.
“It is, an’ it isn’t; it’s both bad an’ good…”
Mrs. Gogan, Act One,
The Plough and the Stars by Sean O’Casey.
Nora Clitheroe has a new hat. She lives in a tenement house with other ordinary people. Their lives are about to be rocked by the Rising. Our production of Plough and the Stars will bring back rioting like it’s 1926.
INO took place in a theatre in 2016, but it was not a show. It is a campaign.
INO is a campaign of resistance.
INO is a campaign to end partition of the island of Ireland, to end oppression of the Irish People, to realise the equality aspired to in the 1916 Proclamation.*
INO is a campaign to tell the human stories of the men and women who joined the IRA in the last fifty seven years.
2016 was the centenary of 1916 and the “year of commemorations”.
INO asserts that any IRA volunteer who has fought for the cause since 1966 is no less a hero then the rebels of 1916.
INO is the elephant in the room.
Since 1998, Irish People have believed that It was over with the advent of The Good Friday Agreement. INO believes this agreement to be as divisive as the 1922 Anglo - Irish Treaty.
The objective truth is that this conflict remains unresolved.
A statement issued by a campaign leader of INO in 2016 claimed “2016 has been a year of state commemorations; revisionism, whitewashing, apologies and double speak. We refuse to commemorate 1916. We are still being colonised. It’s not over. It never started. It’s about to start...”
IT’S NOT OVER (imeachtaí idir 11ú&16ú 2016 as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival) were co- authored by Barry O’Connor and Grace Dyas, presented by THEATREclub and commissioned by Project Arts Centre for the centre’s fiftieth anniversary celebrations and to mark the 2016 centenary of the Easter Rising and funded by The Arts Council.
Ach na h-imeachtaí seo, bhí teach tábhairne, banna ceoil beo, agus uaireanta d’imir muid ‘bingo’
During these proceedings, there were loud noises, explosions, strong language, violence, flashing lights, nudity, vomit, debris, shrapnel, sex, sandwiches, alcohol.
Six felled Wild Irish Deer were displayed as part of the proceedings. There was always a dead thing in the room.
Tá léirmheasanna ar na himeachtaí seo ar líne. Níl a fhios agam an bhfuil siad fíor. Ní raibh mé in ann aon Sleachta a phiocadh le haghaidh mo shuíomh Gréasáin mar bhí an taithí ró-chlaochlaitheach dom iarracht a dhéanamh é a achoimriú, an bhfaigheann tú mé?
Más mian leat na léirmheasanna a fheiceáil tá siad ar google.
Literature issued by INO in October week 2016
Hi, apologies if this programme note feels fragmentary or finishes abruptly. the truth is that this is not the definite draft. we do not have the final draft as of yet. It is our hope that by the end of the show we will have the definitive programme note, which we will print off and hand out to you as you leave the venue, once we have all agreed on the font.
++++++++++++++ is the voice ++++++++ ++++++++always there, that which we turned our backs on. It’s that ++++++ that has been quieted, abused and ultimately ignored. It has reared it’s head up every so often. They see our backs, our bold spines. We can’t get away from it. We cannot stand idly by. It’s spilled over from our subconscious to conscious.. From our TVs onto our streets. Borders, peace wall, don’t write that on my wall. Time and time again we’ve turned our back on it, left them behind. It is put in a corner, our gaze elsewhere. But it shifts, it moves, it will never stop. It is never over. It never begins. You’ll hear it, you won’t hear it, you’ll try and push it away. You will be swept up in it, towed away; you’ll swim, disorientated, straining for it, enraged by it. You’ll watch a play, listen to music, play bingo, you’ll be moved around the space, you will seek solitude. You will not escape that voice;++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This is a campaign, not a play. This is not a theatre company, it’s an organization. Our creative team of actors, technicians, production personal, have all chosen to be here. They are volunteers, They where given the opportunity to opt out;
forget about us and we’ll forget about you.
None of them took this option.
They’ve trained. They’re highly skilled. They’re ready to sacrifice themselves for this cause. They all firmly believe that it’s not over. It is not over. They are all in agreement that oppression is profoundly wrong, they are happy to argue this point with you. Are they fearless? No, they’re fallible. They doubt, they waiver, they’re intelligent, they’re brave.
This past year our volunteers have all observed the commemorative celebrations of 1916. They have heard the proclamation spoke out load at the precise time. They heeded the stories of the innocents caught up in the insurrection. Starred at the monochrome likeness of the seven, heralded heroes. They’ve watched the revivals of The Plough and the Stars. They have perceived hints of apologies woven throughout the narrative of the celebrations.
They refuse to commemorate 1916.
Our volunteers have devoted themselves to the interrogation of the past 50 years of violent political struggle on this island. They examined the tyranny and the terrorism, the brutality of colonialism and freedom fighting.
Freedom is never free.
Freedom is not given.
Freedom must be taken.
They have sat with these ideas.
They have placed themselves in the shoes of others. They have asked themselves what would they do if the street they lived on was systematically burned down.
If their police attacked them at peaceful civil rights protests.
If they rejected the Good Friday Agreement
If they could take a life
They bid to give voice to the powerless, the voiceless, the beaten and abandoned.
They have demystified the violence
They have met with numerous +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++a ++++++++++++++++++++++ They ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++they have met +++++++++++++
You might not agree with the manner in which they go about interrogating this subject. You might agree with them in principal but feel 4.5 hours is too long a campaign. Others may sympathize with their opinions, but feel that the mechanism of post dramatic theatre is not the way to go about it. you yourself might think that you are right and they are wrong. You may have made up your mind before stepping foot inside the door. That’s ok. But we urge you to never look away. Stay focused tonight. Ask yourself do you understand why they’re doing what they’re doing. Keep asking yourself if you would behave the same as our volunteers. Empathize. Place yourself in those shoes. Ask questions, move away form sedentary views. Get angry, if you feel like it. That’s ok, get angry. Riot. That’s what the audience did at the Abbey’s Plough and the Stars in 1926. Keep questioning if, for you, it’s over or not.
That’s all we ask.
And don’t talk about it.
INO, are B+++++++++++, +++++++++s, ++++++++++++++++++++, ++++++++an, ++++++++++edy, +++++++++++++,Jim+++++++++++, +++++++++++le, +++++++++++++ and +++++++++++++. They were formed in 2016 under the firm belief that their struggle is morally justified. They work both North and South of the border.
The position of INO, since its foundation in 2016 has been one of sustained resistance and implacable hostility to the forces of imperialism, always keeping in the forefront of the most advanced revolutionary thinking and the latest theatrical approaches.
Note: The moral position of INO, its right to engage in political art, is based on:
a) The right to resist foreign aggression
b) The right to revolt against tyranny and oppression
c) The right of Art, its duty even, to challenge and provoke.
CREDITS relating to the events of 11-16 October 2016:
Directed, written, designed by Barry John O’Connor & Grace Dyas
Cast:
Jason Byrne, Doireann Coady, Neili Conroy, John Cronin, Stefan Dunbar, Rebecca Guinnane, Neil Keery, Finn Kennedy, James O’Driscoll, Pat McGrath, Ruairi O'Donovan
Band/Musicians:
John Flynn, Ultan O'Brien, Dara Yeates
Lighting Designer Eoin Winning
Costume Designer Emma Fraser
Audio Visual Designer Kilian Waters
Sound Designer Rob Moloney
Therapeutic Facilitator Mari Kennedy
Production Manager Emma O’Grady
Stage Manager Tom Mullan
Pyrotechnics Design Sé Purcell (Black Powder Monkey)
Project Manager Sandra Adams, Joanna Crawley
Duration was: Approx. 4 hrs 30 mins and people could come and go as they pleased.
The photo at the top of this page was taken by Declan English