Judging Famine Follies

October 22nd at 3:30 pm in the Vaulted Stables.

Judging Famine Follies is a new, free play that explores how Irish historic houses and heritage sites were created and shaped during the period of the Great Hunger. Ireland’s landlords have been widely vilified for failing to feed their starving tenants, yet monuments to their benevolence adorn the Irish landscape. Judging Famine Follies summons them from beyond the grave and invites the audience to decide which of their monuments are merited. Lord Londonderry is defended by Major Mahon of Stroketown, the first landlord to be assassinated during the Great Famine. Witnesses from history, with their own foibles and follies, including Lady Londonderry, Lord Brownlow and Lord Dufferin are called. The audience is the jury.