Margaretta D'Arcy

Margaretta Ruth D'Arcy (born 1934), an Irish actress, writer, playwright, and peace-activist.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} Margaretta is a member of Aosdána since its inauguration and is known for addressing Irish nationalism, civil liberties, and women's rights in her work.^[2][3] In 2014, she was imprisoned after she refused to sign a bond saying that she wouldn't trespass on non-public parts of Shannon Airport. Her arrest was a consequence of trespassing on airport property during protests over United States military stopovers at Shannon Airport.

Margaretta was born in London to a Russian Jewish mother and an Irish Catholic father.^[1] D'Arcy worked in small theatres in Dublin from the age of fifteen and later became an actress.^[6] Married in 1957 to English playwright and author John Arden, they frequently collaborated.^[7] They settled in Galway and established the Galway Theatre Workshop in 1976.^[6] The couple wrote a number of stage pieces and improvisational works for amateur and student players, including The Happy Haven (1960) and The Workhouse Donkey. She has written and produced many plays, including The Non-Stop Connolly Show.^[2]

D'Arcy has also written a number of books, including Tell Them Everything, Awkward Corners (with John Arden), and Galway's Pirate Women: A Global Trawl.^[8]

Activism

As an activist, in 1961, D'Arcy joined the anti-nuclear Committee of 100, led by Bertrand Russell.^[2]

Jailed in the H-block in Northern Ireland, her book Tell Them Everything tells the story of her time during the H-block protests.^[2]

D'Arcy also directed a film Yellow Gate Women, a film about the attempts by women of Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp to outwit the British and United States Military at RAF Greenham Common with bolt cutters and legal challenges.^[9]

Challenging censorship since 1987, she ran a women's kitchen pirate-radio from her home in Galway.^[2]

In 2011, D’Arcy refused to stand for a minute’s silence in honour of catholic PSNI officer Ronan Kerr - who was killed by dissident republicans - at a meeting of the artists body Aosdana. Her actions were deliberate, she told media afterwards, which attracted fierce criticism of her perceived support for armed republican groups in Northern Ireland.^[10]

Along with Niall Farrell, she was arrested in October 2012 for scaling the perimeter fence of Shannon Airport, in protest at the use of the airport as a stopover for US military flights.

Imprisonment

In January 2014, D'Arcy, who is 80 years old and currently undergoing cancer treatment, was sentenced to three months in prison for the 2012 protest at Shannon. John Lannon of Shannonwatch called on President Michael D. Higgins, a friend of D'Arcy's family, to intervene in the case.^[11] She was offered an opportunity to avoid prison if she signed a bond not to trespass on parts of Shannon Airport not open to the public but she refused.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has called for her release: “Successive governments have failed to inspect any planes in Shannon and have allowed the continued militarisation of a civilian airport. Rather than addressing these issues, the state has focused its efforts on arresting and jailing a 79-year-old woman."^[12] Independent TD Clare Daly who along with Mick Wallace attended her trial also called for her release. Daly, at a protest rally in Dublin, said her behaviour in court was a model for activists.

Affiliations

• Aosdána (member since its inauguration)
• Member of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC)
• Executive member of AMARC's Women's International Network (WIN)

Works

Books

Her books include;^[8][13]

• D'Arcy, Margaretta (1981) [1962], Tell them everything: a sojourn in the prison of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at Ard Macha (Armagh), Pluto Press, ISBN 978-0-86104-349-1 
• D'Arcy, Margaretta; Arden, John (1988), Awkward corners: essays, papers, fragments, London: Methuen, ISBN 978-0-413-40340-7 
• D'Arcy, Margaretta; Arden, John (1991), Plays: 1: The Business of Good Government, The Royal Pardon, The Little Gray Home in the West, Ars Longa Vita Brevis, Friday's Hiding, Vandaleur's Folly, and Immediate Rough Theatre, Methuen Publishing Limited, ISBN 978-0-413-65150-1 
• D'Arcy, Margaretta; Arden, John (1996), Galways Pirate Women, a Global Trawl, Women's Pirate Press, ISBN 978-0-9528206-0-4 
• D'Arcy, Margaretta (2005), Loose Theatre: Memoirs of a Guerrilla Theatre Activist, Canada: Trafford Publishing & Women's Pirate Press, ISBN 1-4120-3376-4, OCLC 62894742 

Plays

Her plays include;^[13]

• The Pinprick of History;
• Vandaleur's Folly;
• Women's Voices from W. of Ireland;
• Prison-voice of Countess Markievicz;
• A Suburban Suicide (a radio play, BBC3, 1995);
• Lajwaad (The Good People, play by Abdel Kader Alloula, adapted by M. D'Arcy for readings in London, 1995);
• Dublin (Irish Writers' Centre, 1996).

Plays devised as group productions include;^[13]

• Muggins is a Martyr;
• The Vietnam War-game;
• 200 Years of Labour;
• The Mongrel Fox;
• No Room at the Inn;
• Mary's Name;
• Seán O'Scrúdu;
• Silence.

Plays written in collaboration with John Arden include;^[13]

• The Business of Good Government;
• The Happy Haven;
• Ars Longa Vita Brevis;
• The Royal Pardon;
• The Hero Rises Up;
• The Ballygombeen Bequest;
• The Non-Stop Connolly Show;
• Keep the People Moving (BBC Radio);
• Portrait of a Rebel (RTÉ Television);
• The Manchester Enthusiasts (BBC 1984 and RTÉ 1984, under the title The Ralahine Experiment);
• Whose is the Kingdom? (9-part radio play, BBC 1987).

Films

Films as a director and those produced by Women in Media & Entertainment;^[13]

• Yellow Gate Women, 2007, shown at the 'Galway Film Fleadh' and Independent International Video & Film Festival (New York) [2008].^[14]
• Shell Hell, co-directed by Finn Arden, 2005, shown at Galway Arts Festival, the 'Stranger than Fiction Festival' at the IFC (Dublin) and the Human Rights Documentary Festival (Glasgow).
• Big Plane, Small Axe, the mis-trials of Mary Kelly, 2005, awarded 2nd Prize for Best Feature Documentary at Galway Film Fleadh, and also shown at Cork Film Festival, Portobello Film Festival, Human Rights Documentary Festival (Glasgow), and the 'Irish Film Festival' (San Francisco).
• Circus Exposé, 1987 (60 minutes), shown at the 'Celtic Film Festival' (Inverness) and 'Foyle Festival' (Derry).

References

Further reading

• Bourke, Angela; Deane, Seamus, eds. (2002), "Margaretta D'Arcy", The Field day anthology of Irish writing: Irish women's writing and traditions, 5, New York: New York University Press, ISBN 978-0-8147-9907-9, OCLC 633940969, retrieved 4 October 2010 
• Marowitz C, Trussler S (1968) [1967], Theatre at work: playwrights and productions in the modern British theatre, New York: Hill and Wang, pp. 36, 53, 57, OCLC 411681, retrieved 4 October 2010 
• Martin, Seymour-Smith (1986), Macmillan Guide to modern world literature, London: Papermac, p. 1396, ISBN 978-0-333-42794-1, OCLC 248657649, retrieved 4 October 2010 
• Chambers, Colin; Prior, Mike (1987), "John Arden and Margaretta D'Arcy", Playwrights' progress : patterns of postwar British drama, Oxford: Amber Lane Press, pp. 20, 96, 146, ISBN 978-0-906399-81-1, OCLC 17420023 
• Kershaw, Baz (2002), "Experimentation in the 1960s. The community dramas of John Arden and Margaretta D'Arcy", The Politics of Performance:Radical Theatre as Cultural Intervention, Routledge, pp. 9, 92, 95, 98, 106, 107, 109, 124, 249, ISBN 978-0-203-41228-2, retrieved 4 October 2010 
• Parker, Peter (1995), The reader's companion to twentieth-century writers (4th ed.), Fourth Estate, ISBN 978-1-85702-332-9, OCLC 468627139 
• Sinclair, John M.; Wilkes, G. A. (1998), Collins English dictionary, Harper Collins, ISBN 978-0-00-472218-4 
• Cork University Press (2002), The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing Vols IV and V: Irish Women's Writing and Traditions, Cork University Press, ISBN 978-1-85918-281-9 

External links

• "Margaretta D'Arcy". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Retrieved 4 October 2010. 
• Biography at Margaretta D’Arcy website.
• Indymedia Openwire website
• Margaretta D'Arcy at the Internet Movie Database