One Para by Gerard Humphreys

Scotus Press is delighted to partner The New Theatre, in Dublin’s Temple Bar to publish scripts of plays produced on stage in the theatre. The first such script is One Para by Gerard Humphreys.

“Repeat after me…. I came under hostile fire… I fired at the target… to protect my own life and the lives of my comrades…”

A gripping new play which offers us an unseen perspective on the events of Bloody Sunday and their aftermath, staged to coincide with the 50th anniversary. Set mostly in real time during one of the most significant events of the Troubles, ONE PARA tells the tale of a young paratrooper, Scarriff, on that fateful day in the Bogside in Derry in January 1972. The play offers us an intriguing insight from the perspective of both the British and the Irish armies, a contrasting glimpse of the contemporary procedures and processes of both armies.

The history of those who deserted the British Army to join the Irish Army during the course of the 20th century is a fascinating one, and this play offers us a dramatic snapshot based around the life of one such soldier with an interesting, hybrid background.

Gerard Humphreys was greatly influenced by the playwright and director, Tomás Mac Anna. His first play, Éiric, was produced by An Taibhdhearc in Galway. Séanadh, his play about war and remembrance, received a BBC Stewart Parker award. Numerous plays of his have since been produced. He is also the author of Clocha Ceangailte (An Clóchomhar Teo, 1994) an account of his time serving with the Irish peacekeeping troops in the Middle East.

 

In ‘Norah’, the classic tradition is married seamlessly with the narrative of the Troubles … Humphreys does a superb job of conjuring up the horror of the tragedy                                                                   
– Emer O'Kelly, Sunday Independent

                                                                       

One Para by Gerard Humphreys

ISBN 9781-916075382, price €12.00

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