Humanity Dick rides again – in Clifden and Galway City

Humanity Dick: A Tale of Beasts and Bullets, which was a sell-out at last year’s Galway Fringe Festival, will be staged in Galway City and at the Clifden Arts Festival this month.

The Galway City performance will be in the Kasbah Wine Bar above Tigh Neachtáin on Saturday, September 9, at 3.30pm.

On Wednesday, September 13, at 1pm the show will be in Clifden’s Station House Theatre.

Seán Leonard’s one-man drama tells the fascinating true story of Richard ‘Humanity Dick’ Martin, MP, Galway’s celebrity during the Age of Revolution. During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, he was a famous duellist, a cuckolded husband, a bankrupt, an exile, the man who founded the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and more.

“As soon as I wrote the script, I wanted to bring the show to Clifden,” says actor and teacher Seán. “Richard Martin was born in Galway, but was landlord of almost everything west of the city; the beloved ‘King of Connemara’ who made his home in Ballynahinch Castle for many years,” he explains. “To bring his story to life in Clifden where the name ‘Humanity Dick’ still means so much, is special. The fact that he was a bitter rival of John D’Arcy, who founded Clifden on the edge of the Martin estate, makes it all the sweeter!”

The Galway City venue has even closer connections to Richard Martin, as what is now Tigh Neachtain and the Kasbah was his townhouse in the late 1700s.

Sean will be acting out scenes from Martin’s life in the building where he lived, so “it couldn’t be a more appropriate venue – the building is even mentioned in the show”.

Humanity Dick: A Tale of Beasts and Bullets is a story of deadly duels, contrary cousins, wayward wives, fiscal fecklessness, the birth of the SPCA and, a donkey in a courtroom.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.