Afri are delighted to announce that Donal O’Kelly’s play about the Corrib Gas Project, “Fionnuala” has won a Fringe First award during the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Joyce McMillan described “Fionnuala” in the Scotsman as “Gripping, funny and full of a rich sense of Ireland’s great tradition of myth and legend… ruthlessly precise in its analysis of the deep malaise of 21st century Ireland in its subservient relationship with global corporate power and the threats faced by all of us in an age of ever more desperate energy extraction.”
“Fionnuala” is about the Corrib Gas fiasco foisted on a small rural community in County Mayo. Ambrose Keogh works for Shell. When the Tunnel Boring Machine he named Fionnuala sinks into the bog in Erris Co. Mayo, he is magically confronted by Fionnuala of the Children of Lir. Fionnuala puts a geas on him – he’s bound to tell the truth – about Shell. That brings to light some stark truths that Shell management would prefer wasn’t in the public arena. And it brings Ambrose back to his old primary school desk-mate, now an anti-Shell campaigner.
At the awards ceremony in Edinburgh, Donal dedicated the Fringe First to Willie and Mary Corduff and also thanked the people of Kilcommon for their support. Donal stated, “[I] hope that Fionnuala playing the Edinburgh Fringe Festival can be used to highlight the severe abuse of their basic civil rights for over a decade.” Donal also thanked Afri and the 84 people who crowd funded the visit to Edinburgh for their support.
Article about Donal winning the Fringe First in Hotpress: here
Also, Donal speaking on RTE’s Arena show on Friday about the win (starting at 16 minutes in), click here.
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