This June marks the 200th anniversary of the foundation of the world’s first animal cruelty society by Galway’s own Richard ‘Humanity Dick’ Martin MP.
To mark the bicentenary of this progressive lawmaker and notorious duelist whose tireless campaigning ushered in a change in global attitudes, playwright Seán Leonard will perform his production Humanity Dick: A Tale of Beasts and Bullets at both ends of Martin’s once vast land holding in Galway city and Clifden.
The play will be staged in Druid’s Mick Lally theatre next Friday, June 14, and Saturday, June 15, and again in Clifden’s Staion House Theatre on June 22, and July 6.
“In an age when an old world was dying, and a new one struggled into life, Martin straddled both with his singular, lifelong passions: a medieval obsession with defending his honour; and a thoroughly modern fixation upon the welfare of animals,” says Leonard.
“And that is not to mention the other extraordinary adventures of his life and times, which ranged from a duelling youth as ‘Hairtrigger Dick’ - the most famous duellist in Britain or Ireland - through bankruptcy, exile, a cuckolding (or two, if you count Theobald Wolfe Tone ), founding Galway's first theatre, suing an Englishman for "criminal conversation with his wife", reigning from Ballynahinch as the ‘King of Connemara’ and personally witnessing the outbreaks of the both the American and French Revolutions!”
Tickets €20 from www.druid.ie or www.clifdenstationhouse.com/theatre/
