10th April 2001
"Philadelphia Here I Come" is a wonderful play. Our national problem with inter-generational communication is portrayed perfectly with laughs and tears. I saw a wonderful production earlier this month in Mountjoy Prison.
The Mountjoy Theatre Project has been in operation for about fifteen years. Initially it was quite hard to get volunteers for a cast and outside actors were brought in to help. This year the entire cast was from inside and about ten people auditioned for each part such is the enthusiasm there. The set, costumes, lighting, backstage work, everything is Mountjoy based and made. I have seen about six productions there and each year they are better and better.
This year all the cast except two gave their full names as did all the backstage team. I am sure this is because they now recognise that whatever were the problems that got them in there it will be good to look at these programmes in years to come and recognise what a success they were in Mountjoy itself. Let us hope the success continues when they come out.
While there are some dangerous and violent people in Mountjoy many there are petty criminals from inner Dublin. With a slightly jaundiced eye I look at the £60 million given for Croke Park to the GAA and think of Sister Mary Joseph who was at the play. She has been trying to get a twentieth of that sum from any government for the last ten years to build a sports complex in the Dolphin's Barn/South Circular Road area. She lives with the people she helps but we do so little to help her.
"Gar Public" and "Gar Private" were particularly good. Gar Private's part is so long he must be a young man of high intelligence to memorise it. Gar Public took the part at three week's notice, the original Gar Public having been given early release. (This is a recurring problem - one year the star shot out, legally of course, a few days before opening night.) I must ask if anyone has tried to stay in for the run of the play. "Madge" is an old friend and having had stage training in an earlier life she is a great help to any play.
A presentation was made to Sister Caoimhin Nic Ullacháin who is retiring from the Matt Talbot Community Trust which gives great help to many people leaving prison. She singled out one particular member of the cast and said she felt at last she thought he had "seen the light". She had known him since he was fourteen. Suppose he had had the benefit of some sort of sports stadium for entertainment as a child and teenager would he, in his thirties, be in Mountjoy?
The girl who played Lizzie Sweeney, the crazy aunt from America, is another old friend who has blossomed in the plays. It is really sad to go and visit members of the cast a few weeks after the play because they are all so flat, having enjoyed the build up as well as the play. They would agree with Tony Gregory, who once did a few weeks for supporting the Moore Street traders, that boredom is a big problem in prison.
The families of those involved in the play were there the same night as I was along with Minister John O'Donoghue and a handful of judges. After the play we all had an incredible supper cooked by the prisoners who work in the kitchens. With such a shortage of staff in the catering industry they must be amongst those most likely to get jobs on release - I nearly wrote discharge!
It would be great if it was "discharge" rather than "release" in some ways. "Discharge" from hospital has the connotation that the person is better and life will go well outside hospital. Alas, facilities for those released from prison are not good. We badly need more hostels and sheltered accommodation because, unlike the families of the stars of the play, not all want to see the erstwhile imprisoned son or daughter on release. The tale of a young woman beating on the door of Mountjoy on Christmas Day to be readmitted is true.
These people are patients of the doctors associated with the prison service. They need a G.P. service as much as the rest of the population and a psychiatric service more than most. They even need to see hospital consultants from time to time. Dr. Enda Dooley makes huge efforts on behalf of his patients and Dr. Fiona Bradley's publications are a monument to her commitment to them. But how much support as a profession do we give all those other doctors who act as GPs and psychiatrists and who try to point out deficiencies in the system? A letter to Dr. Hugh Gallagher, the new chairman of the prison doctors group, is in order to ask how we can help.
Senator Mary Henry, MD
