Trinity Talks: Dublin’s Hidden Histories – Episode 3 – Brian Singleton

Dublin’s Hidden Histories is the latest series of ‘Trinity Talks’ from the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute and Near FM. In this series of talks and radio programmes, we feature an exploration of sites in Dublin which are the subject of ‘difficult’ histories, from asylums to prisons. The series presents experienced researchers and compelling storytellers in their subject areas for this exploration of ‘history in the shadows’. The stories are accompanied by live performances by An Góilín Traditional singers.

Episode three – The Monto is infamous as Dublin’s 19th Century red light district, especially famed in Joyce’s Ulysses. On the 100th anniversary of its closure, Near FM’s Ciarán Murray is joined by Brian Singleton, Professor in Trinity’s School of Creative Arts, to discuss how and why sites across this area became the inspiration for interactive theatrical performances, and how companies like ANU Productions created performance pieces of Dublin’s inner-city institutions.

Professor Singleton will explore how these performances uncover the hidden histories behind the sites and buildings of Dublin city–sites ranging from the Gloucester Street Laundry on Sean McDermott Street, the last of the Magdalene institutions to be closed in 1996; to the houses 14-17 on Moore Street where the first provisional government meeting took place in the last days of the 1916 Rising. The focus on performance around these sites brings to the fore not a past that glorifies the history of the state, but a past of the people who had lived, suffered, fought, or been incarcerated in those sites–people whose roles in history have been downplayed, hidden, forgotten or erased.

The songs and poems are gratefully provided by Fergus Russell from An Góilín Traditional singers. 

Brian Singleton holds the Samuel Beckett Chair of Drama and Theatre at Trinity College Dublin, and was Academic Director of The Lir – National Academy of Dramatic Art at Trinity College Dublin. He is a former President of the International Federation for Theatre Research and former editor of Theatre Research International (Cambridge University Press). His research interests include orientalism and interculturalism in performance, as well as contemporary Irish and European theatre. His book ANU Productions: The Monto Cycle was published in 2016 and he is also writing a new monograph provisionally titled Theatre and Performance and Neoliberal Ireland.

The episode is presented by Ciaran Murray. Produced by Dorothee Meyer Holtkamp. Sound design by Paul Loughran. Recorded by Gay Graham and Gabor Zajzon. Thanks to Aoife King and all the team in Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute.

The series is made with the support of Coimisiún Na Meán’s Sound and Vision scheme, with the Television License fee.

The Trinity Long Room Hub is Trinity’s research institute for the Arts and Humanities. For more visit https://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/about/

For more on An Góilín Traditional singers please visit https://goilin.com/