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Next up: I have founded New Ireland TV. A new TV station for a new Ireland. New Ireland TV is available FREE worldwide on Roku and Amazon Fire TV stick. No additional signup required, simply download from the channel store and enjoy!

Interview in ExplorinDublin.ie

Posted by James on April 01, 2021

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I’ve been interviewed in the excellent Dublin based website ExplorinDublin.ie about New Ireland TV

Read it here!

Read more about: interview New Ireland TV

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Playboy of the Western World, a play for the 21st century.

UPDATE 𝕺n May 10-12 I'll be performing in J.M. Synge's Playboy of the Western World. The play is considered one of the great works of Irish literature (a very coveted field - it would be no exaggeration to say that Irish literature is possibly the most prolific in the world), and caused riots upon its premier in the Abbey Theatre in 1907, led by one of the founders of Sinn Fein, Arthur Griffiths.

Rehearsed Reading with Accidental

All this week, I have been rehearsing with Accidental Theatre for their rehearsed reading of Leopoldville, by Jaki McCarrick , as part of their ' VI ' season. It's a punishing drama set in 1990, about a real life incident of murder of a bar owner by a group of young men. This is my first rehearsed reading, and I have to admit I felt out of place after the first rehearsal, but after four days of intensre rehearsals has given me a lot of confidence, going into tomorrow night's performance. It is also notable as my first lead role, so I am excited to be going in front of an audience in this position. I shall write again after the performance.

Playboy of the Western World, Undisclosed, Progressive Building Society and Generous Bank!

This Friday and Saturday, May 13th and 14th sees the performance in my second run of Playboy of the Western World, this time playing the patriarchal Michael James at the Crescent Arts Centre. The production has been an exercise in sheer efficiency, as we only started rehearsing in earnest last week. The cast and crew, all from Queen's University Players have been fantastic and have brought real life to the piece in an incredibly short amount of time. Colm Doran is directing with help from Rory Knox, Alex Stone, Simon Welch and Adam Turns in the production team. Thomas Finnegan is the title role as Christy , Christina Martin, who I directed in Fast & Loose V , plays Pegeen, Anton Thompson-McCormick is the cowardly Shaun Keogh, Nuala Donnelly is hilarious as Widow Quinn, Terry McCartan plays the drunken letch, Jimmy Farrell, James Maguire courageously stepped in at the last minute to portray Old Mahon and the three girls are played with dynamism by Shauny Shields, Vicki Mohan and

Filmed TG4 show, Éalú, in Armagh and Vichy performance

This week I was in Armagh Prison filming Éalú with Magamedia for TG4. Éalú is a documentary series focused on famous prison breaks, with actors providing visuals to accompany interviews. I was playing the role of Sean Bourke , a political activist who planned and executed the escape of George Blake, a Soviet double agent who was incarcerated in Wormwood Scrubs prison. Their plan was ingenious, involving a rope ladder reinforced with knitting needles, forged documents, uninhibited derring-do and a walkie-talkie hidden in a pot plant. Bourke was a live wire character, being imprisoned for mailing letter bombs to senior police officers, and having difficulty dealing with a drinking problem. The other main actors were Shane Morgan and Mark Byatt and we were improvising scenes throughout the two shooting days. They were great actors and it is always great to be working off such great performers. Part of the escape plan involved me making a quick escape in a vintage Ford Prefect, whi

The Fallacy of Britpop's 'Big Four' Revisionism.

Britpop was a glorious era for British and Irish music, when bands from almost every major city in the country were generating enough groundswell to rack up Top 20 and even Top 10 hits regularly, and many of them replicating their home shores success worldwide.

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