Rich family history inspires Ann’s new drama

Lifestyle – Ann Henning Jocelyn’s husband and son are descended from Mary Boleyn, sister of the more famous Anne, and she has long been intrigued by their lives. Private family papers were the starting point for her latest play which offers new insights into the Boleyn story, as the writer tells JUDY MURPHY.

On the wettest of wet days in Connemara the sight of a giant long-haired black dog, the size of a small calf, bounding happily from the back door of a period house is a cheery one.  He’s Pushkin, the canine in residence at Doonreagan House in Cashel, home to author and translator Ann Henning Jocelyn and her husband Robert.

Ann’s latest play, The Sphere of Light; Secrets of the Boleyn Women, which is being presented at this year’s Clifden Arts Festival on Friday, September 27, is the reason why the Tribune is visiting Doonreagan.

But nothing can be done before making friends with Pushkin, a gentle black German Shepherd who wants to play ball and be petted.

“He can read,” says Ann proudly. “No, really,” she stresses, realising that she’s meeting a degree of scepticism.

And Pushkin can read, as he later demonstrates. First, though, he and Ann lead the way to outhouses that have been converted into holiday apartments at the rear of the main house. Ann uses one as her writing studio, an area free from distractions.

A bookcase beside her writing desk bears witness to her latest project on the Boleyn family who played a key role in English and Irish history in the 1500s.

Ann’s husband, Robert, the 10th Earl of Roden, and their son Shane, are direct descendants of Mary Boleyn. Mary was sister of the more famous Anne, who became King Henry VIII’s second wife in 1533, before he had her beheaded three years later in the Tower of London

Henry VIII had divorced his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, to marry Anne, following seven years of chaste courtship. He had decided Anne would become his wife and would supply his much-needed male heir. Such was his determination that he split from the Church of Rome and established himself as head of the newly formed Church of England.

Some years previously, Henry had had had an affair with Anne’s sister, Mary, and rumours abounded that her child, Henry Carey, was a result of that liaison.

Henry Carey – later Lord Hundson – who was Queen Elizabeth’s first cousin and possibly her half-brother, rose to prominence after she became queen in 1558 when she appointed him as Lord Chamberlain

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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