February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Armagh-born actor and writer Macdara Mac Uibh Aille first performed his one-act show in New York in 2002. It tells the story of Colin, a teenage
joyrider pursued by both the police and the IRA for his “anti-social behavior.”
A spokesperson for Families Bereaved Through Car Crime, Tommy Holland, said the play would highlight the trauma and tragedy of car crime in Northern Ireland.
“We would like every young person to have the opportunity to see all facets of so-called joyriding and what it involves,” Holland said.
“They need to see the devastation it causes, not only to families who lose a loved one but to their own families who are left with the shame.”
“Peacefire” takes place during the first IRA ceasefire of 1994 and chronicles the story of Colin, a teenager on whom both the IRA and the police are closing in after a spate of car thefts. After being arrested by the police, Colin is let go after he provides information about local IRA activity in the Armagh area. But the IRA then decides to punish him for his carjacking. The play’s action takes place in a Catholic Church, where Colin takes refuge and ponders his fate.
In graphic detail and strong language spoken with his unmistakable Northern accent, Mac Uibh Aille describes punishment beatings and what drives Northern Irish teenagers to joyriding. Over the years of the Troubles, car theft was a common source of high-risk entertainment for disillusioned teenagers in some of the North’s most deprived areas.
“Peacefire” will be performed in Belfast’s Waterfront Hall, in Derry, Armagh and Dublin, in February.