Synopsis
Dublin, April, 1916.
Revolutionary; James Connolly; looks to Dublin printers, Molloy, O'Brien and Brady to turn out 2000 copies of an Irish Proclamation- in one night and in secret- to be read by Padraig Pearse at the GPO Easter Monday 24th April 1916. They don't have enough type. They don't have enough wax. They don't have enough paper. Can they do it?
*Based on the actual characters & events surrounding the secret printing of the first Irish Proclamation.
Revolutionary; James Connolly; looks to Dublin printers, Molloy, O'Brien and Brady to turn out 2000 copies of an Irish Proclamation- in one night and in secret- to be read by Padraig Pearse at the GPO Easter Monday 24th April 1916. They don't have enough type. They don't have enough wax. They don't have enough paper. Can they do it?
*Based on the actual characters & events surrounding the secret printing of the first Irish Proclamation.
Maureen O'Connell is the writer, director & producer of PROCLAIM!
Hi there!
Thanks so much for your interest in PROCLAIM!
So, a little about me....
I am an actor & filmmaker from Dublin, Ireland.
I was lucky enough to train at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and received a BA in Acting in July 2012.
I also attended Ballyfermot College, Dublin & received a Higher National Diploma in Film Production.
I've several acting credits to my name & have written & directed 2 other short films that have screened at festivals worldwide. I run #& am the sole owner of production company 3 Hot Whiskeys which has produced all of my films.
PROCLAIM! is my 3rd short film and is the most important to me.
My Granny, Nell Sullivan, was in the Cumann na mBan (Irish Female Freedom Fighters) and she made bullets and transported arms covertly. She is mentioned in several history books along with her brother, Tom.
She wrote a brief autobiography before she died and she said that those years being with the Cumann na mBan - even when she was locked up in prison in Limerick!- were some of the most exciting years of her life.
So, I went looking for a story that involved Cumann na mBan and one that I could involve my Granny in too.
I stumbled upon the story of how the Irish Proclamation was printed. It was a great story! And very amusing!
It's set in Dublin in 1916 during Easter Week. There was tension mounting between the British Forces that governed Ireland at the time & Irish rebels led by Thomas Clarke, James Connolly, Padraig Pearse and others.
James Connolly asked printers: Molloy, O'Brien & Brady; to print out over 2000 copies of an Irish Proclamation in one night & in secret. They didn't have enough type. They didn't have enough wax. They didn't have enough paper. They even had to ask a British printer for help- and, being an Irish Republican sympathizer, he did!
There are 29 mistakes on the Irish Proclamation. There is an upside-down 'e'. The 'E's' are all different fonts, shapes & sizes.
They couldn't print capital 'C's' so they had to print a capital 'O' & break it so that it looked like a 'C'. They had to print it in 2 halves as they didn't have enough type to do the whole document.
So, this was my story, I thought. How wonderful! All the things they went through to get it done. And they did it! They gave it to Padraig Pearse at 11am at the GPO on Easter Monday morning 1916. Ireland's soul battered to a piece of paper was proclaimed!
Although, my Granny would have been in Limerick at the time of the Easter Rising, I decided to insert her into the story as she had invariably helped the cause in some way in any case.
And I decided that the best person to play my Granny was me. So, I make a cameo in the film too.
So, this film is hugely important to me, a huge and ambitious endeavour and very personal to me.
But it is also hugely important to everyone who worked on it with over 25 cast & crew, we all worked so so hard on it and for free! No one was paid. I had the tiniest budget & so people worked hard on it because it was important to them to tell this story.
Really, I am indebted to & humbled by, the amount of work that people did on this short and for free. The cast & crew are exceptionally talented and generous people.
In some ways, I feel there are parallels between us & the actual printers. They had very little to make their Proclamation but did it anyway with all their heart, skill and joy. We had very little to make the film about them but did it anyway with all our heart, skill and joy.
Again, thank you for your interest in our little film & I dearly hope you enjoy what we all worked so hard on!
Go raibh míle maith agat!