An original, fascinating take on the life of Wolfe Tone
Historical entertainer Paddy Cullivan brings 'The Murder of Wolfe Tone' to Ballina Arts Centre on Friday next, February 9th.
The ever-fascinating historical entertainer and campaigner (also musician, artist, comedian and political commentator) Paddy Cullivan is coming to Ballina Arts Centre this Friday with his eye-opening one-man show, .
It’s a must-watch, not just for those of us interested in Ireland’s history but for those interested in Ireland’s future. Because Paddy is on a mission to revive and restore the memory and reputation of Wolfe Tone, the founding father of Irish independence and the first to promote Irish neutrality.
“He was the George Washington of Irish Republicanism,” says Paddy. “An 18th-century enlightenment Protestant, inspired by both the French and American revolutions, who set the ball rolling for equality and independence in this country. He also said that ‘peace with all the world is our object and our interest’.”
Wolfe Tone brought his fellow Protestants together with Catholics and Dissenters under the banner of the United Irishmen, and, with his great friend General Humbert, organised four French invasions of Ireland in 1798. One of these came ashore near Killala and ended with the arrest and execution of Tone’s brother Mathew. This was followed by the battle of Tory Island, off Donegal, which led to the death of Wolfe Tone himself in British custody.
Paddy is certain Wolfe Tone was murdered, though the authorities of the time put it around that he committed suicide ahead of his execution, an accusation intended to damage his reputation. It insenses Paddy that establishment Irish historians don’t challenge this view more vigorously, when so much evidence points the other way.
“A lot of our Republican history has been revised,” he says, “by a small coterie of journalists and academics that seem to want to mock the founding stories. It became particularly bad during the '70s and '80s when, because of the Troubles, establishment figures were quick to put down Republican values and heroes like Wolfe Tone, who were anti-authority and anti-hierarchy. Now I’m trying to right the wrongs of history, by revising the revisionists.”
However, Paddy’s show is no dull polemical lecture but an audio-visual spectacular featuring hundreds of images, inimitable humour, and some great songs.
“I deliver a real historical story, using all the resources of my life,” he says.
And he has a lot of resources.
He is the son of the famed classical Irish composer, Tom Cullivan, and the Irish-American artist, Nancy Cullivan. He was raised with his sister in a fine Georgian house in North Great George’s Street in Dublin, which his parents lovingly restored.
“The Irish government of the time was prepared to let those houses rot because they represented British imperial rule, but those buildings were also masterpieces built by Irish hands. James Gandon didn’t go down on his hands and knees to build the Custom House,” says Paddy.
In the 1980s, Paddy attended Mount Temple school, which catered to the children of Protestants, Catholics and Dissenters “much like the United Irishmen”.
“It strengthened my Republican beliefs,” he says. “I could see that the solution was to have a mixed education system. To be unified not by religion but by purpose.”
Art college followed, but Paddy swung back to music, becoming the frontman of the satirical band, The Camembert Quartet, which was spotted by Ryan Tubridy and joined forces with him for 15 years, first on and then on .
Like his parents, Paddy had always been interested in history, but something shifted inside him during the centenary celebrations of 1916.
“To quote UCD historian Diarmaid Ferriter, there was just so much ‘embarrassing unhistorical sh*t’,” he says. “The state seemed to want to celebrate the men and women of 1916, by not celebrating them. When Bob Geldof was allowed to sniff derisively at Patrick Pearse and his associates, I responded with a song called .”
Not content to stop there, he decided to develop his own relentlessly truth-telling (but also delightfully entertaining) one-man show called , which dubbed, “a freewheeling political polemic that makes you laugh while making you think". One of those dark secrets, which Paddy continued to explore, was the death of Michael Collins.
“The sniper who shot Michael Collins was not a sniper, and probably not there at all,” he says.
Exploring 1916 brought him back to 1798, where the true Republican ideals of independence and equality, as exemplified by the heroes of 1916, were first espoused by Wolfe Tone and not – as Paddy points out – by the likes of Catholic nationalist Daniel O’Connell.
“We don’t just need to decolonise Ireland,” he says. “We need to de-O’Connell-ise Ireland.”
In 2018, he met the well-known Killala historian Steve Dunford – “an all-round genius” – at an historical re-enactment in Kildare, and the two become the best of friends.
“He became my biggest influence. We’d chat literally every day, and he helped brilliantly with my show . Steve was a great inspiration, he brought history out of the lecture hall and showed how it could be both fun and interesting.”
inspired Paddy to take a further, deeper dive into the death of Wolfe Tone, where shocking new research led him to fresh conclusions.
But it’s not just Wolfe Tone’s death he wants us to know about. It’s about Tone’s life, his dreams, his ideals.
“This show is about the values of the Enlightenment,” he says. “Values which both the heroes of 1798 and 1916 fought for. I want Ireland to become the country they envisaged.
"A truly independent Ireland. And it’s not only about political independence, it’s about independence of mind. A new maturity, a restoration of self-esteem; a new story that raises our eyes above the horizon. And I believe that if we take the likes of Wolfe Tone as our guide, we will find our path to that future made straighter and easier.”
Expect to be blown away this Friday when you take your seats for this remarkable, brilliantly entertaining show.
Paddy Cullivan’s comes to Ballina Arts Centre on Friday, February 9th, at 8pm. Tickets: €18/€16.
