Call Yourself An Irishman?
A one-man show about Ireland, Britain, and never quite knowing which nationality you are.
You’re born in one country. But your parents come from a different one. So what does that make you?
And what if the two countries in question share a profound and complex history, one of conquest and subjugation, of resistance and rebellion? But which happen to be closest neighbours across the Irish Sea, and have grown to a mutual understanding, and (a sometimes uneasy) co-existence?
Where do you, born and raised in one of those countries, but with ties and binds to the other, find your identity? How do you define yourself? And what do you say to those who seek to impose your identity upon you? Are you British? Or are you Irish? Or don’t you know? And why the hell are there so many Irish people in England, anyway?
Join Declan Duffy as he attempts to make some good sense out of it all. He’ll be considering the history of Irish migration to Britain, the difficulties encountered by the people who made that journey, and how all of it has influenced us, their descendants, in our consideration of who and what we are. There’ll be some songs, of course there will. And a few laughs. And we’ll attempt to answer the vexed question of how many boxes you technically have to tick in order to confidently state: “I am Irish (sort of)”.
