A young Jack Kerrigan, the subject of ‘A Boy from the North West’, with friends in Bundoran
‘Building a Ballet’ RTE Lyric Feature. Dancer Joan Wilson and Ben Stevenson in The National Ballet Company’s Careless Love, choreographed by Patricia Ryan.
RTE LYRIC FEATURE: ‘BUILDING A BALLET’
In’Building a Ballet’ I tell the story of a forgotten Dublin ballet school in the years 1957-64 – from public protests about visiting Russian dancers, to audacious original ballets exploring themes of female sexuality, and collaborations with figures such as Patrick Kavanagh.
In September 2024, the documentary was shortlisted by the IMRO Awards in the category of best arts, culture or music documentary.
The documentary includes interviews with surviving dancers, and features fragments of unpublished memoir from ballet teacher & choreographer Patricia Ryan, read by her granddaughter actor Simone Collins. Unpublished letters to Ryan from Samuel Beckett, Ninette de Valois, Micheál Mac Liammóir and Nadine Leggat are read by actors Mark Doherty, Ingrid Craigie & Jonathan White.
Drawing on the collection of Ryan’s daughter Penelope Collins, the documentary was funded by the Coimisiún na Meán Sound & Vision scheme and RTE, and first broadcast on Mother’s Day March 11, 2024. Listen by searching for ‘Building a Ballet’ on Spotify & other platforms or on RTE Lyric at https://www.rte.ie/radio/podcasts/22367247-building-a-ballet-the-lyric-feature/
A BOY FROM THE NORTH WEST – THE JACK KERRIGAN STORY
As writer and researcher, I partnered with producer Susan Dennehy to make the docu-drama ‘A Boy from the North West – The Jack Kerrigan Story’, funded by the Sound and Vision Scheme. The documentary tells the story of Donegal-man Jack Kerrigan, one of the members of Ireland’s first Paralympic team in 1960. Jack’s unpublished memoirs & love letters to Rosemary Burgess (later Kerrigan), brought to life in the documentary by the actor Mikel Murfi, are a poignant account of what it was like to be a wheelchair user in Ireland in the 50s & 60s. The documentary won Silver for Best Documentary at the 2016 PPI RADIO AWARDS.
Podcast from the Newstalk website at http://www.newstalk.com/podcasts/Documentary_on_Newstalk
LETTERS FROM MIDWINTER
I worked on the script & research for ‘Letters from Midwinter’ with producer Susan Dennehy, based around women’s private letters 1970-2020, and funded by Sound and Vision with additional support from A Post. I also contributed a letter under a pseudonym! This documentary won Silver at the New York Festival Awards 2021.
This can also be podcast from Documentary on Newstalk at the link above.