Derry playwrights looking for memories of Long Kesh bus

Originally Bernadette’s idea and “one which was so good I instantly wished I’d thought of it first,” laughed Eamonn, the pair currently have a social media call out for women willing to tell their stories of travelling to the prison on the bus to visit husbands, sons, brothers, boyfriends, uncles and friends.

Explaining her inspiration, Bernadette said she wanted to write a play about the Long Kesh Bus because she liked to write about women.

“Often women don’t feature in the narrative around the Troubles. We tend to hear, ‘men did this and men did that’. That’s what prompted me to write my previous play ‘4 Days in Derry’ too. I wanted to tell the stories of the women of Bloody Sunday,” she added.

“The Long Kesh Bus was the same. I just thought the women who travelled on it would have some interesting, funny, heartbreaking stories to tell. It’s now a matter of collecting all of that information by interviewing anyone who gets in touch with us and comes along to our public meeting.”

Anyone who is interested in telling their story of the Long Kesh Bus is invited to contact Bernadette or Eamonn via either of their Facebook accounts, by Friday, October 16.

“I have already spoken to some women and I’ve heard wee bits and pieces. I know from the response I’ve had so far people are interested and that spurs me on,” said Bernadette.

“Again, I love women to have a voice and, you know, there will be women in the cast because life wasn’t easy for the women who travelled up and down to Long Kesh on that bus, it wasn’t. They were a wage down and rearing children alone. It must have been tough, and then finding the money to put a food parcel together to bring up to the prison,” she added.

“I would say there must have been a lot of stress on them, trying to feed the wanes and trying to get a parcel together but, you know what, that’s what women do, they cope. They put their emotions to one side and they get on with it.

“Having said that, The Long Kesh Bus won’t be all doom and gloom because Derry people find humour in a lot of things. That’s what has carried us forward, even during the Troubles. We learned to laugh and accept things and get on with life,” said a philosophical Bernadette, who became friends with Eamonn through the staging of ‘4 Days in Derry’ and his own play ‘The Derry Yank’.

“When Bernadette mentioned the Long Kesh Bus to me and I just thought it was a brilliant idea,” said Eamonn, “because, for me, this is a piece of our local history, our social history, our political history which is very much in danger of being lost because of the passage of time.

“And, I really like the way we are approaching writing the play - putting a call out to people who were there, to bring authenticity to the story. That’s capturing the time that was in it and the experiences, particularly of the women,” he added.

“But, don’t be surprised if there’s the odd man looking to talk to us too because I’m sure the bus had one or two of them in it too but we’ll keep an open mind about all of that.

“I was thinking when Bernadette was talking about the parcels there, as an ex-internee myself and the recipient of the parcels, I used to just love that day the parcels were coming in, especially the time I was there because we were in protest, we were throwing all the food over the wire. We were only eating their bread, and a parcel was absolutely very important.

“I can remember that was probably the first time I ever knew what tinfoil was, you know, my mammy would have wrapped up some meat in tinfoil. I am only like 20 or whatever it was when I went inside, so I was never really near the kitchen except when the dinner was on a plate,” smiled Eamonn, who said chatting to Bernadette had helped him to think about it from a woman’s perspective.

“I think now of the effort it took, perhaps the hardship others were having to suffer,” he mused.

“I have no doubt that kind of thing will come out in the stories when people come and tell us them, and I am really, really looking forward to that,” said Eamonn.

“Also, when I did ‘4 Days in Derry’ I was so aware of children,” said Bernadette, “for me, it was important I included the children of Bloody Sunday in the play - somebody giving a child 50p and that was supposed to make everything all better.

“For The Long Kesh Bus, I asked someone if children were allowed to visit the prison, and Fiona Montgomery contacted me to say she would never forget going up in the Long Kesh bus, in her First Communion dress, to visit Micky, her father and show him how she looked. Isn’t that heartbreaking? We can’t lose these memories and stories.

“Of course, behind that, I am immediately thinking of her mother who had to get the dress and get Fiona all organised, all on her own,” said Bernadette.

“And then I start thinking back on what it was like as a prisoner to receive a visit,” said Eamonn. “Afterwards, you might have just laid down on your bed reflecting with maybe a touch of sadness, because, all of a sudden you were in touch with freedom for half an hour and then it was over again.”

As well as The Long Kesh Bus, an ambitious Bernadette and Eamonn are also going to work together to bring two other plays exploring Derry and universal themes to the stage - ‘Are ye going in for one?’ set in an addiction centre, and ‘What if? [working title], a prequel to Eamonn’s hugely successful ‘The Derry Yank’ which was staged in St Columb’s Hall and then The Millennium Forum.

“It just makes sense for us as two writers and Bernadette, who is also a director, to co-produce the three plays,” said Eamonn. “We’ll be amalgamating our own resources. No-one can depend on getting grants from the likes of the Arts Council or anywhere, so we have got to try to do this in a way where it will wipe its face,” he added pragmatically.