WHAT IS it like to be a dedicated member of a political party, working your way up through the ranks, believing in all the party stands for, and then, to see that certainty and belief shattered?
This is Just Guff by Jim Ward, which won the Best Play from the West of Ireland Award at the Galway Fringe Festival awards last Sunday. The play is getting a second run in The Loft, Seven, Bridge Street, at 1.10pm, on Tuesdays and Saturdays until August 26 (no show this Saturday ).
Jim Ward was a one-time Fianna Fáil stalwart. “I was on the National Youth Committee of Fianna Fail in the 80s,” he told the Galway Advertiser's Charlie McBride. “I was chair of Ógra Fianna Fail in Galway West, and chair of the biggest cumann in the country, in Salthill, for years. I worked my way up through the ranks then worked my way down again.
“Although the name of the party isn’t mentioned, the play is about Fianna Fáil from the 1960s up to the crash, it covers things like the Arms Crisis, Taca – the organisation of big businessmen supporting the party, the famous Ard-Fheis where Patrick Hillery marched Kevin Boland out of the hall. It also looks at affairs at the local level and has humorous anecdotes. The central character is an ageing, disillusioned party hack.”
The play is being staged by Hot Potato Productions and directed by Jenny Bassett. The cast is Michael Irwin, Frances Jones, Blaithnaid O'Dea. Tickets are €10/8.
