Episode 23: Rough Girls. Ma Mary Gets Tough.

As promised in episode 18 the TDG's made it to the opening night of Tara Lynne O’Neill's Rough Girls at Belfast's Lyric Theatre.  We met up the morning after the big night before and we are all buzzing… It’s the first time the 3 of us have done an interview together… in the same room at the same time with a real live guest… we are just a teeny bit giddy.  The play revolves around the untold story of Belfast's first all female football team and even though set a hundred years ago it has parallels which continue to resonate today. The team was playing to crowds of 20,000 in 1920's Belfast and yet their story receives no mention in the official story of the Irish Football Associations (IFA) history. And they were subsequently banned by the Football Association (FA) which stopped all women from playing football from 1921. Tara Lynne decided the story needed telling and she does it with energy, hilarity, sheer joy and raw emotion - an all female cast bringing sheer class to a story that needed to be and should be told. Back of the net!  https://lyrictheatre.co.uk/whats-on/rough-girls https://www.playingpasts.co.uk/articles/football/the-pioneer-of-ladies-football-in-irelanda-brief-history-of-mrs-scottpart-on/ https://www.irishnews.com/arts/2021/04/17/news/derry-girls-star-tara-lynne-o-neill-on-helping-young-female-footballers-to-share-their-stories-2290817/ https://www.facebook.com/RebelsWithaBall/ https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/search/?q=Rough%20Girls https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0642321/ For more information about the podcast, visit: www.thebiglight.com/talkingderrygirls Keep up to date with us on Twitter: @TBLderrygirls Check out our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/talkingderrygirls WATCH Derry Girls on Channel 4: https://www.channel4.com On RTE (in Ireland): https://www.rte.ie/ Series 1 & 2 available on Netflix outside UK: https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/news/derry-girls-season-2-coming-to-netflix-in-august-2019/