Oona Doherty had never told the story of her parents and forebears. The woman once a rebel with jagged movements has returned to her initial realism as related to the younger generation in Belfast, their attitude to violence and their expectations. Now that she has settled in France she can talk about her roots, background and childhood in Northern Ireland, a land of industry and farming, and look at her views on myths from the distant past. Specky Clark is described as a series of theatrical images from Oona Doherty’s investigation into her grandfather Clark, nicknamed Specky (for wearing spectacles). The audience encounters the working class of Belfast, the docks, the pigs in the backyard, slaughterhouses and the butcher’s shop run by her mother’s family. Here is an experience of that time and world, and she is the worthy custodian of that world.

Thomas Hahn