Bailieborough in great Shape for All-Irelands

A Mullagh actor will be returning to happy hunting ground when he takes to the stage to compete in the finals of the All-Ireland One Act title.

Liam Daly and the Millrace group won in the ‘Confined All-Ireland Finals’ in west Cork back in 2013 with a fantastic performance of Trad. However that win saw Liam enjoy a six-year break away from acting before taking on the challenge of playing Mr O’Coineen in Tara Lovett’s one act drama ‘The Shape’ – this time with the multi-award winning Bailieborough Drama Group.
Half a dozen performances on the drama festival circuit have seen Liam and the Bailiborough group propelled into the finals in Rossmore Theatre with a chance of sealing another All-Ireland title this weekend.
Liam was lured back onto the stage when director Conor Sheridan, with whom he had previously worked on the Millrace production of Trad, approached him to participate in the two-hander. Assistant director Liz O’Hanlon – who won best actress at the All-Ireland One Acts last year – had also been eager to get Liam on board.
“I think Liz saw me in the role when she read the play,” says Liam. He met both Liam and Conor to have a read through and discuss the piece and Tara’s writing truly resonated with him.
“ I read it again the next day and thought it was a really lovely story and a lovely piece of writing and thought I’d love the challenge of reading Mr O’Coineen.
He was “ delighted” to have been offered the role and he’s relished the challenge of returning to rehearsals and performing once again.
“It has been great fun performing with Conor, and Liz and the Bailieborough Drama Group this winter,” he says.
‘The Shape’ is centred on Mr O’Coineen, a 55-year-old man living alone when TV licence inspector Sheena (Fiona) appears, requesting to see his licence. Mr O’Coineen is tormented by an incident deep in his past which has gripped the trajectory of his life ever since.
“ He is now living in his own world and he needs this forgiveness. He replays this in his own head – he looks for this forgiveness every single day.”
“I think there’s a sad, yet lovely story in this,” he says frustrated by being unable to reveal the many nuances and serious themes involved in the short drama. While we can’t divulge too much – the quality of the piece and Bailieborough’s performance of it is confirmed in how they have eased into the All Ireland finals this weekend.
“We competed in six festivals and picked up three wins [for best play overall], two seconds and a third,” said Liam who, also won four Best Actor awards along the way; meanwhile Fiona was nominated numerous times and picked up Best Actress.
Bailieborough are the only group from Ulster to have qualified for the finals. Having got to the final, is he confident of winning it?
“We’ve a one-in-five chance of winning it, because there’s four other groups in it. I’m not the type of person to be very confident anyway, usually with that type of thing.
“We’re certainly going to go down and give it our best shot – leave it all on the stage, that’s all we can do. Then it’s really up to an adjudicator - it depends on their taste and what we do in the meantime.
“I think we’ve a great play, a very strong cast and a great team and we’ve as good a chance as any other group out there to win an All-Ireland.”

The Shape - starring Liam Daly and Fiona Clarke - will be staged in Mullagh Hall tonight (Wed) at 8pm before heading down to West Cork for the All Ireland Finals on Friday, in Rossmore Thetare outside Clonakilty.