The story of an Irish maid to be presented at a Tipperary theatre

Wilde Irish Women are taking ‘Margaret Maher and The Celtification of Emily Dickinson’ to Fethard’s Abymill Theatre.

The show will be on Saturday Septemner 23. Curtain 8pm.

The story of an Irish maid Margaret Maher - Maggie - and her loyal service to Emily is not widely known. However, Aife Murray’s book ‘Maid as Muse’ shed a different light on the servants of the elite Dickinsons of Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Rosie Caine, the founder of ‘Wilde Irish Women’ – a collaborative performance group based in Western Massachusetts – was inspired to look further at the hierarchy of the household servants and especially at the spirited Maggie who came from Killusty, Fethard, in 1865, at a time of rampant anti Irish bias.

‘Help Wanted - No Irish Need Apply’- was a common insulting deterrent, marking the Irish as ‘other’, effectively barring them from even the most menial jobs in domestic service.

Maggie’s personality, intelligence, wit, independent spirit and work ethic ultimately dispelled the biases of her mistress. Maggie is warm, wild and mighty, “The North wind of the house”, so said Emily. It would appear Maggie had more confidence in herself than her reclusive mistress. 

Emily Dickinson only submitted a few poems out of 1,800 for publication in her lifetime. Margaret ultimately found within herself the moral authority to disobey her mistress’s deathbed decree, to burn her poems. In the play, we have Maggie grappling with such an unthinkable dilemma. In Ireland we wouldn’t be burning the poems of a genius, she’s telling herself as she makes her decision to defy her mistress.

Dickinson’s poems are now on the Leaving Certificate syllabus for 2024, so this production will foster a far greater understanding of Amherst’s Poet Laureate, Emily Dickinson. The poems are now songs for which Rosie has written the music and book. The show has wings as we fly ‘Maggie’, ‘Emily’, and a cast of fourteen to perform in Ireland, arriving in Fethard on September 23. The derelict house where Maggie lived through the Famine is in the trees beyond the theatre. The cast have willingly volunteered countless hours and rehearsed a show that they are proud to take to Ireland. They hope to build an educational and cultural bridge and open up a post-show conversation between themselves, traveling American musicians, actors, singers and the Irish audiences.

Rosemary Caine

Rosemary Caine originally from Ardee, Co. Louth, Ireland, is the founder of ‘Wilde Irish Women’ and has written, produced and performed six Irish Women themed musicals since 2002. She was nominated for the Adjudicator’s Award 2006 at Dundalk Theatre Festival for the musical score – ‘Women in Arms’- a play by Mary Elizabeth Burke Kennedy based on the women of The Táin. She won The Irish Amherst Association’s Margaret Maher Award in October, 2021, for her contribution to Irish Arts in Western Massachusetts.