Niamhh McCann has probably featured in the backgrounds of more than a few selfies this week. She's on the streets of the capital, re-creating life at the time of the Easter Rising for Glorious Madness, a dramatisation that ties in with Rebellion, an app-based walking tour of key 1916 sites that Visit Dublin launched this week.
McCann plays Julia Grennan, a Dublin furrier whose partner, a Cuman na mBan member and nurse named Elizabeth O'Farrell (played by Bairbre Ní hAodha), delivered Pádraig Pearse's letter of surrender to Gen William Lowe in 1916.
The scenes are being staged by Anu Productions, the theatre company behind the award-winning Monto cycle, which says it wants to help its audience "look beyond the lens of history into a time of terror, intrigue and infiltration".
“We’ve extrapolated what’s interesting to us from the Rising to capture a moment in time and bring characters to life,” says McCann. “We were drawn to the contradictions and mass confusion of the Rising.”
Wearing a corseted dress, draped in fur, and with a long black veil over her face, McCann travels down O’Connell Street to Wynn’s Hotel, on Abbey Street, to perform the vignette with Ní hAodha.
What do people say when they see her in character? “One man asked me today if I was going to a wedding like that. I replied that I was going to a funeral, and he said, ‘I’m sorry for your loss.’ Another asked if I was from 1916,” says McCann, who now features in the background of many selfies.
“All these integral, poignant relationships between people is what made the Rising happen,” McCann says. “There is always this interactive, dynamic element to this kind of work. There is a sense of glorious madness about it.”
The actor points out that this is different from traditional historical accounts. “I didn’t learn about these women in primary or secondary school,” she says. “I didn’t know about their liberalism, their bravery or their stoicism while carrying dangerous messages through the city.”
Although O’Farrell handed over letters of surrender at key points across the city, and was with Pearse when he handed over the final letter, she doesn’t appear in photographs of the event. “That moment exemplified the erasing of women from that part of history.”
As well as Rebellion, the Dublin Discovery Trails app features The Story of Dublin, a route that takes walkers through the city's history, from its Viking roots, at Wood Quay, to City Hall; the Echoes of War route, which reflects Dublin's past association with the British army, with stops at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Kilmainham Gaol, the National War Memorial Gardens and Collins Barracks; and Empire, which includes stops at Dublin Castle, Trinity College Dublin and St Patrick's Cathedral.
The Glorious Madness dramatised walking trails start at noon, 1pm, 3pm and 4pm from Monday to Saturday until July 4th; €5; bookings here or at the starting point of the walks, at Discover Ireland, 14 O'Connell Street, Dublin 1. The free app is available via visitdublin.com
