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Cyberactivism and the Emergence of #TeamPanti

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2015

FINTAN WALSH
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Extract

On 1 February 2014, Ireland's best-known queer performer, drag artist Panti (Rory O'Neill), delivered a ten-minute speech on the main stage of the Abbey Theatre following a production of James Plunkett's play The Risen People (1958). The oration was the last instalment in a series of so-called ‘Noble Calls’ programmed by the national theatre, in which invited artists, activists and public intellectuals spoke after the production about an issue of pressing concern. Plunkett's drama explores the impact on a family of the 1913 Dublin Lockout, during which approximately 20,000 people took to the streets in an industrial dispute over working conditions. Marking the centenary of the event, the production and its Noble Calls commemorated the original incident, while also encouraging reflection on the state of contemporary Ireland, and the public's aspirations for a country deeply affected by recent social, cultural and economic upheavals.

Type
Forum: Contemporary Queer Theatre and Performance Research
Information
Theatre Research International , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , March 2015 , pp. 104 - 107
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 2015 

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References

NOTES

1 A film of the speech, made by Conor Horgan, Caroline Campbell, Nicky Gogan and Ailish Bracken, and can be watched here: ‘Panti's Noble Call at the Abbey Theatre – WITH SUBTITLES’, YouTube video, 10:48, posted by ‘rory oneill’, 2 February 2014, at www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXayhUzWnl0, last accessed 17 May 2014.

2 For instance, we can think of the demise of the Celtic Tiger economy, the exposure of banking corruption, and revelations of Church and state institutional abuse throughout the twentieth century.

3 In March 2014 Waters resigned from writing his column, citing unhappiness with the way the paper handled what became known as the Pantigate affair. He also resigned from the board of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, most likely as he was not in a position to both hold this position and take legal action.

4 Civil partnership became available in Ireland in 2010, and a referendum on same-sex marriage is due to be held in 2015. O'Neill's television interview and Panti's theatre speech became catalysts for foregrounding this subject not only in Ireland, but also around the world, where many countries are dealing with the same question. For more information about how Panti has intervened in social and political debates see Fintan Walsh, ‘Pride, Politics and the Right to Perform’, in Noreen Giffney and Mira Hird, eds., Theory on the Edge: Irish Studies and the Politics of Sexual Difference (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave, 2013), pp. 105–22.

5 In response to this apology, RTÉ received over eight hundred complaints, and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland over a hundred complaints. John Waters, who was a member of the Authority at the time, resigned on 23 January.

6 Fintan O'Toole, ‘The Most Eloquent Irish Speech since Daniel O'Connell Was in His Prime, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXayhUzWnl0. . .’, Twitter, @fotoole, 4 February 2014, at https://twitter.com/fotoole/status/430851619081576448, last accessed 21 July 2014.

7 McCaughey, Martha and Ayers, Michael D., ‘Introduction’, in McCaughey and Ayers, eds., Cyberactivism: Online Activism in Theory and Practice (London and New York: Routledge, 2003), pp. 1–21Google Scholar, here p. 5.