View from the Green Room: Cockle Shell heroines
Peter's St. where the cockle sellers sold their cockles and periwinkles.
The Minaun Theatre Community Group is based in Faithlegg with its own mission to produce original theatre.
Their mission statement is ‘theatre of the people and for the people’. Tonight’s play ‘Tales of the Estuary’ has already had six full houses and tonight’s performance at Garter Lane is another sell out.
‘Tales of the Estuary’ is an original piece of theatre, written by local historians Andrew Doherty and Breda Murphy, and is based around the fight and plight of the Cockle Women (Bridie Fennessy, Sinéad Cheevers, Breda Murphy and Nancy Doherty), who were taken to court in 1926 to prevent them trading in Peter St. and Arundel Sq.
Side by side with this is the real-life story of Richie (David Marchant) and Mary (Ellen Doherty), whose young love flounders on the rocks of emigration to the USA.
Poverty and injustice anchor this drama and the collective love and warmth of tonight’s largely Minaun audience towards their shared histories is very moving. True life stories of the struggles of impoverished Estuary women to provide for their young families is a story of courage and endurance.
Stories tumbled out of the grinding hardship of life in the fledgling state. Miles-long journeys to cockle-beds in Woodstown, Cheekpoint and as far away as Tramore where they were greeted with open hostility…standing for hours in freezing cold river beds…transporting the cockles to Peter St. where they were sold in muslin-lengths …dumping the cockles when they didn’t sell…fishermen-husbands who could no longer work the river because of ill-health.
A story of young love and innocence parallels the stories of the Cockle Women. Sadly, the promise of a passage to the USA for Richie brings their puppy love to an end when reality bites. Mary’s final words to Richie… "have a good life"… break hearts in a world where escape from poverty is all.
The highlight of the night is the court case that sought to force the cockle sellers to move to the fish market. A JCB couldn’t dig in deeper than the women who simply refused to move. It’s the cue for much laughter as the cockle shell heroines ridicule the prosecuting barrister and a Waterford Corporation official. A sympathetic judge rules in their favour.
Theatre performs many functions - satire, moralise, entertain, make audiences laugh and cry, as well as transforming people and situations.
Minaun Community Theatre brings its own people together and doesn’t simply shine a light on its past but owns it.
The audience joined in song for the final American Wake scene with a moving rendition of ‘The Parting Glass’ as it wished, "good night, good luck and God be with you all."
A warm and gentle finale to an enjoyable night in Garter Lane.
