The Cedar Lounge Revolution

Seán Tyrrell performs Message Of Peace – The life of John Boyle O’Reilly in song and story – Pearse Centre August 16, 2011

Seán Tyrrell performs Message Of Peace -
The life of John Boyle O’Reilly in song and story

Thursday 25th August 2011, 8:30pm
Tickets: E15 / E10 concessions
Box Office: 01 ? 670 4644 | bookings@theirelandinstitute.com

IONAD AN PHIARSAIGH THE PEARSE CENTRE
The Ireland Institute, 27 Pearse Street, Dublin 2.
www.theirelandinstitute.com

A one-off performance as part of the celebration of National Heritage Week 2011, this is a deeply moving, engaging and remarkable story of a lesser-known Irish hero John Boyle O’Reilly (1844-1890) in both the spoken word and song, mapping his life and work. Seán Tyrrell interweaves his observations on our own times and condition. This leaves no doubt as to the passion, respect and high esteem in which he holds his all time hero whose poems are as relevant now as they were when written, the title poem and song being a perfect example. In this performance, Boyle O’Reilly’s journey is traced from early childhood and set against a backdrop of famine, revolution, Fenianism and sentence to penal servitude for life in Australia.

He was the first to escape from the penal colony on a whaling ship to the USA. He settled in Boston and became the most influential Irishman in America of his day. Numbered among his friends and admirers Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mark Twain and Wendell Phillips. Joseph Pulitzer commissioned him to write a poem for the unveiling of the Statue of Liberty. As editor and part owner of The Pilot newspaper he championed Native and African American rights and spoke out against anti-Semitism. Prophesied the EEC and a black president of the USA. It was O’Reilly who devised the plan that rescued the other Fenians he left behind in Fremantle prison on board an American whaling ship the Catalpa.

Romantic, Visionary, Poet, heart of a rebel, courage of a freedom fighter, commitment of a civil rights activist, blood of true born Irishman.

Songs in the show allow Tyrrell to connect history of the 19th century and modern times in a seamless way. Song lyrics are drawn from a wide variety of sources: Oscar Wilde, Francis Ledwidge, Bob Dylan, Bobby Sands, John Lennon and many more. These are an integral part of the tale and illustrate how O?Reilly was a man way ahead of his time, a majestic human being. Using an array of instruments, Seán weaves effortlessly between narrative, instrumental and song.
www.heritageweek.ie

IONAD AN PHIARSAIGH,
THE PEARSE CENTRE,
Institiúid na hÉireann,
The Ireland Institute,
27 Sráid an Phiarsaigh,
27 Pearse Street,
Baile Átha Cliath 2.
Dublin 2.

+353 (0)1 670 4644

bookings@theirelandinstitute.com

www.theirelandinstitute.com