The Red Cloth Cap

by Blue Teapot Performing Arts School & Rab Fulton

Here is the red cloth cap of Éamonn Ceannt,

Cut and sewn and given form by his sister’s hand

And worn in the Pope’s presence as reminder

Ireland remained – and remains – unvanished, 

Unvanquished, unsubsumed yet, 

Likewise its customs, its costumes, its tongue and its tunes. 

So declared Éamonn Ceannt from Ballymoe

With a blast of O’Donnell Abú

Played with that defiant good cheer that stood him well

When the bullets flew and the shrapnel sang

In the South Dublin Union on that fateful Easter Morning.

 

Between the spurts of adrenalin and the thwack of terror

Surely he thought of the red hat then, and the whole costume, 

And his sister’s fingers holding scissors, needle and thread,

Her brows low as storm clouds, her eyes focused on the task of creating

And recreating a culture entire,

Just as when children they played fairy tales and legends

With paper tiaras and cotton wool beards and cloth cut into attire

Suitable for a prince and a princess who danced and sang with glee.

In January 2023, students from Blue Teapot Performing Arts School joined poet and storyteller Rab Fulton for two Poetry as Commemoration workshops. The group were shown items from the Galway City Museum collection and, as a group, composed a collaborative sequence of poems. Founded in 1996, Blue Teapot is an award winning theatre company that transforms theatre practices by telling stories through the lens of disability. The students from Blue Teapot who took part in this workshop include Damien Quinn, Robert Coomber, Elizabeth Brennan, Catherine Mulkerrin, Francis Carr, Stanlin Joy Hirang, Mary Grace Best-Lydon, Aidan Thomas and Roksana Kazmierska.