"...this emerald jewel...paints a clear picture of Irish pride and perseverance. How each character tells his or her story and braids the blood ties that bind them is both fascinating and moving." Cynthia Topps, Times Herad Record
ECHOES OF IRELAND is available for production through Eldridge Plays & Musicals. Click the logo on the right for details.
Press to play Neil Gow's "Lament for the Death of his Second Wife," used in the upstate NY production.
ECHOES OF IRELAND was produced in County Cork, Ireland by the Skibbereen Theatre Society, as a fundraiser for GORTA, an Irish famine relief charity working in Sub-Saharan Africa. Please check them out by clicking their logo.
Synopsis/Character Breakdown/Review
Echoes of Ireland is a series of four inter-related monologues that follow the saga of a single Irish family from County Cork in 1860 to present day New York City. Beginning five years after the end of the potato famine in Ireland, Echoes follows the Cunyngham clan through their journey across the ocean to the ports of Manhattan, through the lowly existence of immigrant life in the States, to the assimilation and rebirth of their family as American citizens who never forget from whence they came. The journey is part tragedy, part comedy, part history lesson and all undeniably human.
MONOLOGUE ONE (m), 40s+, Irish born Cork native, victim of the potato famine, at turns angry and heartbreakingly sad
MONOLOGUE TWO (f), 20s, Irish born immigrant to America, feisty, able, filled with life
MONOLOUGUE THREE (f), 40s, a long suffering wife and mother of Irish descent
MONOLOGUE FOUR (m), late 40s, modern-day New York Irish fireman, funny, relatable, devoted to family
"It is a bit of a shock to experience Petti's verbal chiaroscuro pulsing with imagination and unselfconscious poetry, tied to real emotion and stunning character." John Paul Keeler, Catskill Hudson Newspapers
"It was one of the most emotional performances I have ever come across. It was so powerful and the story was told so beautifully. I was so moved by it...each monologue was performed so brilliantly and every emotion came to the fore during this story of pride and determination in the face of adversity." Cllr Karen Coakley, Mayor of Skibbereen, Co Cork Ireland