From the Turas na mBan gathering in Erris, which featured various lectures and talks, to live music sessions in Ballycroy, alongside poetry, storytelling, and finally theatre in Belmullet. Looking back on it now, there was a common thread running through nearly all of them: love. Love of family, love of place, love of memory, love of one’s country, and the enduring human instinct to hold onto dignity even in the face of grief, loss, emigration, or authority. Oddly enough, it was a play that tied all of those themes together most clearly.
On Sunday, 17 May 2026, I attended a performance of We Have Him Back! at Áras Inis Gluaire in Belmullet during what proved to be a completely sold-out opening weekend. Written and directed by Brian MacSuibhne, the play tells the story of Frank Stagg, the Mayo-born Provisional IRA hunger striker from Hollymount in Co. Mayo, who died on 12 February 1976 after 62 days on hunger strike — his fourth hunger strike overall.
Frank had emigrated to Coventry in England in search of work and a better life for his family, eventually working as a bus driver before his imprisonment. In many ways, that detail alone says something important about Ireland of that era. Like countless others from the west of Ireland, emigration was not an abstract political concept. It was an economic reality for many a man from the West of Ireland seeking work.
Before the performance, MacSuibhne explained the deeper purpose behind the production. As he described it:
This project, this stage production preserves endangered oral history. Documented truth. And community memory of a censored event in modern Irish history. I wanted it to have an educational value as well as a reconciliation value. Telling of the love of a brother in the fight for a United Ireland.
The intentions of the play are grounded in the experiences of the Stagg family and the treatment they endured at the hands of the authorities in both London and Dublin. Rather than simply offering a historical retelling, the production revolves around a dying wish and a brotherly promise that was to be kept, told from the perspective of those who experienced the events directly.
The play also addresses Frank’s close friend and comrade Michael Gaughan, from Ballina, who died on hunger strike on 3 June 1974 and was buried in the Ballina Republican Plot. His presence within the story deepens the emotional and historical weight of the production, grounding it further within the realities of Mayo and the sacrifices carried by families and communities during that period.
One of the strongest aspects of the play is how it portrays the way authority can extend suffering far beyond the individual directly involved. The actions of both the British and Irish states did not simply impact Frank Stagg himself. The system deliberately affected his mother, his siblings, his wider family, and his community. Even small acts of control or denial can have enormous emotional consequences when families are grieving or enduring the strain of prison visits. What the Stagg family endured was portrayed not as abstract politics, but as an intensely personal form of suffering and cruelty. The play handles these themes carefully without becoming overbearing.
At the same time, We Have Him Back! is not relentlessly bleak and dark. There are genuine moments of humour throughout, and the production is all the stronger for it. MacSuibhne introduces characters and exchanges that bring lightness and humanity into what is otherwise extremely heavy subject matter.
In places, there are clear echoes of the great Irish theatrical tradition associated with Seán O'Casey and Brendan Behan — not in the sense of imitation, but in the way humour, working-class resilience, and sharp dialogue coexist alongside tragedy and political tension. That balance is important because it reflects real life. Even in periods of grief or conflict, people still laugh, joke, argue, and live as best they can. The humour in the play never undermines the seriousness of the story, instead, it makes the emotional moments hit harder.
The performances themselves also deserve enormous credit. The cast is largely amateur, but in truth that adds to the authenticity of the production. The performances feel raw rather than polished, emotional rather than theatrical for the sake of theatricality. There is a sincerity to the acting that suits the material perfectly. At no point does the audience feel distanced from the people on stage. If anything, the rougher edges strengthen the emotional realism of the production.
Another aspect of the play that stayed with me afterwards was the unmistakable presence of Mayo itself throughout the story. The quiet, steely reserve often associated with people from that part of the world is visible in nearly every scene. Landscape matters in Irish history, and particularly in stories like this. Place shapes people, outlooks, opportunities, hardships, and ultimately choices. The roads that led Frank Stagg from Hollymount in Co. Mayo to Coventry, and eventually towards imprisonment and hunger strike, cannot be fully separated from the social and economic realities of the Ireland he came from.
Yet despite the darkness of much of the story, the play ultimately leaves room for dignity and humanity. Without revealing too much for those who have not yet seen it, there is emotional power in the simple fact contained within the title itself: eventually, the family did get Frank back, through a promise made by George Stagg to his brother. That emotional core is what elevates the production beyond politics alone.
This is a play that should be seen by a wide audience. Certainly, those with an interest in Irish republican history or the political history of the 1970s will find much to engage with, but the appeal of the production stretches well beyond that. Students, academics, historians, and anyone interested in oral history, grief, migration, family, or the effects of institutional power on ordinary people would find something worthwhile here.
Importantly, productions like this matter because oral history fundamentally matters. Stories passed through families and communities carry emotional truths that official records alone often cannot capture. Future generations deserve access not only to dates and statistics, but to the lived experiences of those who endured these events directly. That is where theatre, storytelling, and community memory become important cultural acts in themselves.
In the end, what stayed with me most about We Have Him Back! was not simply the politics or even the historical tragedy at its centre. It was the humanity of it all. During a week in Mayo filled with music, poetry, conversation, and reflection, this play seemed to gather many of those wider themes together: love, grief, resilience, emigration, humour, authority, family, and memory.
And perhaps that is its greatest achievement. It tells one family’s story honestly enough that it begins to speak to something much larger than itself.
If you wish to see We Have Him Back! for yourself, the nationwide tour continues throughout 2026, with further dates potentially still to be announced.
Confirmed performances currently include:
- Esker Arts Centre, Tullamore, Co. Offaly — Saturday, 23 May 2026
- The Island Theatre, Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim — Saturday, 6 June 2026
- Swift Cultural Centre, Trim, Co. Meath — Saturday, 13 June 2026
- An Grianán Theatre, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal — Saturday, 5 September 2026
- TF Royal Theatre, Castlebar, Co. Mayo — Friday, 25 September 2026
- The Garage Theatre, Monaghan Town, Co. Monaghan — Saturday, 14 November 2026.
Further performances are also expected across Dublin, Belfast, and Cork as part of the continuing nationwide tour, with additional dates likely still to be announced.
⏩Daithi Hopkins is a republican socialist activist.
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