Eddie Alford came to England in the late 1960s. The teacher couldn’t get a job in Ireland because he didn’t have a parish priest’s reference. He never went to church.
“At the time I was really fed up but my wife said to me, ‘Look, it’s the best thing that ever happened to you.
“She said, ‘You’d be bored, you’d walk within two months. You’d have the parish priest down on top of you, the bishops as well.’”
Alford, who teaches drama, has turned such tales into award-winning drama.
He writes comedy about the attitudes and quirks of the country of his birth.
The M Boat, about a barge delivering Guinness from Dublin to Shannon Harbour in 1950s Ireland, won the Argus Angel Audience Award in last year’s Brighton Fringe.
Another play he began to write at the same time (while studying for anMAin creative writing at the University of Sussex ten years ago) tackles a more recent phenomenon: The Celtic Tiger.
The play was originally 15 minutes long but after numerous reworkings it is now a full-length show with video projections and audience participation. It premieres at Brighton Fringe 2012.
He has set Murphy’s Legacy in 1994. It is a key date in Ireland’s recent history because between 1995 and 2000 the Irish economy expanded at an average rate of 9.4%. The Boom, or Ireland’s Economic Miracle, turned the country from one of Europe’s poorest states into one of its wealthiest regions.
As such, the five characters – priest, politician, solicitor, farmer and estate agent – are at a crossroads. A nouveau riche is developing and the country is casting off its conservative shackles imposed by the Roman Catholic Church.
“Before, the Tiger religion ruled the roost and it went hand in glove with political parties,” explains Alford.
“Now the Church has lost power and control, but the politicians are still corrupt.
“The Tiger is broken – these kids are coming out of university and they are moaning and complaining they have to go to Australia or England.”
Murphy’s Legacy deals with the availability of easy money and the Church’s position on sex and relationships.
Unsurprisingly, when Alford took the play to Ireland, he caused offence.
“If I offend people I’m on the right track,” he says.
“There is a women in my village who is a big churchgoer. She saw the short version of it.
“She said, ‘You’re making fun of the Church. You should know better, you’re a teacher’.”
The irony is that it was being back in the classroom that put Alford’s writing on track.
“At Sussex they taught me writing is about cutting. They said, ‘You can write but we’ll teach you about deadlines and editing’.
“I wrote Murphy’s Legacy as an exercise for three actors.
“I brought it in and they said, ‘That’s your voice’.”
He had wanted to be a serious playwright but soon realised he could make serious points through comedy: get people laughing and they will listen.
So he has managed to shoehorn pig racing and a politician who is nicknamed gobsh*** into Murphy’s Legacy.
“He is a nasty piece of work and based on politicians in Ireland, but you could shove him in here too.
“He has collections for the party, in brown paper bags, and controls grants and money and looks after himself first.”
The Eagle, Gloucester Road, Brighton, May 11 to May 19 (except May 14)
Starts 8.30pm, £8/£6. Call 01273 917272
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here