A NEW play currently touring Irish centres across Britain was written to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the controversial hanging of three Irish men in Manchester.
Those men became known as the Manchester Martyrs and playwright Eileen Murphy decided to use their tale as the basis for a new theatre piece, entitled Edward and Eliza and the smashing of the van.
The story of the Manchester Martyrs began in September 1867, when a police van carrying two Irish rebels, Kelly and Deasy, was stopped by a band of Irishmen on Hyde Road near Belle Vue in Manchester.
The pack freed the Irishmen, but in the process killed the police officer guarding them, Sergeant Charles Brett.
His death brought a wave of anti-Irish feeling to Manchester and saw many Irishmen arrested.
In November 1867 three of those men were tried, found guilty and publicly hanged outside the New Bailey prison in Salford.
Their convictions and deaths – which were widely held as questionable – saw large processions held in Britain and Ireland and many monuments erected in their memory.
When Murphy decided to begin researching the tale for her play, she discovered something she wasn’t expecting - that Sergeant Brett had an Irish sister-in-law.
Eliza Brett was married to his brother Edward Brett, a retired drum major in the British Army.
The pair kept a small store in Macclesfield at the time that Charles Brett died, leading Murphy to wonder just how the conversations went in that household at that time.
“Intrigued by how these momentous events might have affected their marriage in the hostile anti-Irish climate of the time, Eileen Murphy has given these two characters centre stage,” a spokesperson for Straightforward Theatre, the company touring the play, explained.
“Edward and Eliza were real people, but Eileen has created a fictional story which explores their struggle to cope with their personal family loss, their loyalty to each other and their very different cultural backgrounds,” they add.
The play, directed by Chris Honer and starring Alison Darling and Dominic Gately, opened at Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester on October 5.
It will spend the remainder of the month touring theatres, art centres and Irish clubs around the country.
For a full tour list and to book tickets click here.
