The Dundonald Liberation Army

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And then when you go and see these shows and you see a room full of people belly laughing at your jokes, it's a great feeling.

Stephen expressed his frustration that for all the fine words that ‘it’s okay not to be okay’ and that we should all be open about our mental health, there’s been very little tangible progress. Yet the arts community has as much spirit as Ms Donnelly’s characters, Susie who is “feisty” and Norma who will go toe-to-toe over her principles because she knows she is right. As Donnelly observes, many in the business have worked away in London or elsewhere but choose to return: “We may not make much money but theatre matters. We’ll say, there isn’t a lot of funding but let’s put something on anyway.” If someone's saying 'I'm not going to watch that, I don't like politics', trust me: there's a lot more to it than that.”Just a few months after the hostile takeover, there had been unconfirmed reports that a rebel force was assembling within Dundonald. The area had always felt the presence of paramilitary activity, with organisations such as the C.Y.M. (Cherryhill Young Militants), the D.V.F. (Dundonald Village Florists) and the O.M.D. (Old Mill Defenders) in operation at different times. Gerard trained at The Lir National Academy Dramatic Arts, Dublin, and Rainbow Factory School of Performing Arts, Belfast. This bifurcation reflects Northern Ireland’s wider pattern of peaceable but largely separate coexistence. Oddly enough, the work that challenges sectarian divisions most directly does so by appearing to be weirdly, surreally obsessed by them: a comedy called “Give My Head Peace” that began as a TV sitcom and became a touring stage show. It features screamingly caricatured Protestants and Catholics in perpetual and often improbable interaction with one another, ranging from the banteringly social to the conspiratorial and the erotic. He took the helm as community director on We’ll Walk Hand in Hand, a large community outreach project and stage play exploring Civil Rights in Northern Ireland. His recent production of Betrothed appeared at Belfast’s Grand Opera House to a completely sold-out run. He is also working on bringing to stage the story of the world-famous Dead Rabbit bar in New York. Of course, and this is the interesting bit, Davy the former terrorist – sorry freedom fighter – wants real power so makes the transition to mainstream politics. Horse, the passionate Dundonaldian, isn’t happy in the end.

The DLA’s style—bling, fake tan, ostentatious facial hair—is unmistakably that of loyalist criminal godfathers. Their performances have attracted working-class Protestant men who might not normally be theatre-goers. Yet at times the dotty rhetoric is reminiscent of Irish nationalism. Stephen Large, creator of both the DLA and “Three’s a Shroud”, insists he is an “equal-opportunity offender”, who tries to show proper disrespect for all sides. Talking to the Vote DLA gang in an otherwise empty studio space at the Grand Opera House, it’s clear they are having fun with the climactic show. They even put up Vote DLA posters round town in the run-up to the recent council elections, maybe confusing some voters in the process. Finally, we discuss the significant moment when warriors in the armed struggle turn to the democratic process and enter politics. Do the Vote DLA team think there’s a nostalgia for the excitement of the battle? Davy aka Matthew McElhinney has this one: “Yes, although you can get a lot done via democracy, there’s a lot of misty-eyedness. They never want to give up the DLA and the struggle.”So it's sort of an equal opportunity offender in that regard. There is no agenda there other than to rip the p*** out of everyone equally. That's proper satire to me." New show Vote DLA sees ambitious ideologue Davy hoping to swap violence for votes in his quest to free his home town from the grasp of Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council - and he’s dragging his reluctant compadre along with him. I may criticise things but am not saying, 'This is wrong, this must be right'. I am not trying to correct things, but am taking the piss out of everybody. It’s equal opportunities satire, if you like.”

They are both great to work with – and we're friends as well, so it's not just a working relationship," explains Large, who is currently developing a dramatic screenplay titled Normal Lives set amid the explosion of ecstasy culture in the wake of the Good Friday Agreement. The MAC was an excellent choice of venue when staging the show as the humour is quintessentially Northern Irish and there is no better place to take the hand out of ourselves than the heart of Belfast city centre. The pair bounced incredibly off each other and were not afraid to make themselves look the fool in the name of comedy and it paid off.It isn’t just about politics, a subject people may find automatically turns them off. It’s about celebrity too in a way, the paramilitary WAG culture," says Large. But they clearly haven’t and they joke about there not being enough nudity in the play for Matthew McElhinney’s liking. Jo Donnelly adds: “It’s lovely in this show to have no fear, you just have to let go of preconceptions.”

The author references the late 1970s political satire Citizen Smith, featuring the great Robert Lindsay as Wolfie, borrowing his moniker from the Irish revolutionary fighter Wolfe Tone. He’s been a writer on Radio Ulster’s award-winning A Perforated Ulster for the past six series, while his sitcom pilot Meet the McMelters debuted on the same station in October 2021.

Team

In the weeks that followed the statement, Dundonald and Lisburn were thrust into conflict as DLA water-bombs burst across the new ‘super-council’. By in large, the DLA enjoyed the unwavering support of the Dundonald people but anyone who was found to be dissenting would be severely dealt with. The DLA ruled their territory with an iron rod and administered ‘de-baggings’ to anyone found to be engaging in anti-social behaviour or who was outspoken against their regime. If the comedy is broad, it needs to move along, as in Mrs Brown’s Boys. In fact, this show might make a decent half-hour comedy on the box. The CYM could be considered as the forerunners to the DLA after they smuggled the first consignment of Super Soakers into the area during the early Nineties. The DVF took a no nonsense approach to the vandalizing of flower beds belonging to local residents, while the short-lived OMD disbanded over regrets they had named themselves after an Eighties new wave synth group.