Nobbers war hero recalled in stage play

Scoil Eoin Báiste an Obair’s much heralded play of 'Nobber’s Forgotten Heroes' is being staged this Friday, 15th May in the Solstice Arts Theatre, Navan, at 7.30 pm.

Following on from the success of their shows last January where they performed in front of packed audiences in the local parish hall over two nights this is the last chance to see the talented children from Nobber in this one off show.

James Englishby is a married man with a young family and finding it hard to make ends meet around Nobber in 1914. Joining John Redmond’s Irish Volunteers to fight with the Allies on the Western Front seems like the perfect opportunity to escape the poverty trap that he finds himself in and make some much needed cash.

It doesn’t take long before he and his friends from Nobber realise that this wasn’t the glamour war he thought he was signing up to as the harsh realities of life in the trenches come home to roost.

Meanwhile back home in Nobber, James’s wife Peggy laments the absence of her strong minded husband along with the other women from the village who too have husbands fighting in a war that they don’t know when and how it will end.

James’s dad Jack is more concerned about the poor run of form of the local football team as he disparingly claims that “15 of our best men are out fighting in the trenches in France while the rest of what we have are like Clarke’s fat sheep grazing above on the top of Cregg Hill.”

This is the last chance to see this heart warming show as writer Ronan McGahan and musical director Lenore Welsh McGahan take you on an emotional roller coaster back to Nobber in 1914 and then to the Western Front and finally to Palestine in 1918.