The Steward of Christendom

Written by Sebastian Barry.

Sebastian Barry wrote The Steward of Christendom as a way of discovering and coming to terms with his great-grandfather, Thomas Dunne - the last Catholic head of the Dublin Metropolitan Police before Irish Independence in 1922, a loyal servant of the British.

The play finds Dunne, played by Padraig Broe, in the last years of his life, confined to the county home at Baltinglass, County Wicklow, where he drifts randomly between an undignified, spartan present and the past - the pastoral idyll of his childhood; his father's harshness towards him; the pride he took in his work as a policeman; the death of his wife in childbirth, and of his only son in the trenches; and his estrangement from his three daughters.

Barbara Sheridan directs a play for the Moat Club which will compete on the All-Ireland drama festival circuit for the first time since 2000, when her production of By the Bog of Cats won the title.

Many of you will remember the iconic performance of Donal McCann as Thomas Dunne during the 1990s in Dublin, in one of his last roles.

The cast includes Eugene Delaney, Ann Hurley, Sarah Gallagher, Eilish Rafferty, Lisa Moorhead, John Lennon and others.

 

 

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