St. Patrick's Festival: In Focus - Jenny Wyse Power (Episode 2: 1914 - 21)

Woohoo, got my first vaccine jab today! Better yet, I could take the day as a "medical appointment", so got the day off work without losing any of my (almost completely intact) holiday allowance! Nice one - and I could do with the break. As it turned out, I have quite a sore arm (though already improving), and am quite tired - so am very glad of the day off. I can recommend the four-day week.

With another gap in programming this afternoon, I ploughed on with the St. Patrick's Festival website.. had that documentary on Jenny Wyse Power to finish. So, today it was Episode 2 (1914 - 21). We'd already learned that she was a businesswoman, with her own small shop in Dublin, a nationalist, and a supporter of women's suffrage. Also a founder member of Cumann na mBan, a nationalist women's organisation.

With war and revolution on the horizon, you might have expected this episode to be rather exciting. But never forget, it's simply a Zoom call among three feminist historians - rather dry, in fact. And no, she didn't grab a gun and go tearing down the road, picking off the enemy as she went - no, more prosaically, someone mentioned that the Cumann was engaged in figuring out how to smuggle food in to the embattled Irish revolutionaries.They also mentioned the tension between members who thought they should be fighting for Irish freedom, and those who thought they should concentrate on suffrage. Well, all if this doesn't make for a very exciting story. No graphics either, apart from summary slides - all very academic. It was handy to drop off to, though, briefly. I will try the final episode at some stage, though.

At (ahem) 1am on Friday :-) I'm treating myself to another virtual tour with Broadway Up Close - this one is the Bar Crawl, and I just couldn't resist, the last one was so good. Hey, nobody calls early meetings on Friday anyway! Thumbs Up Theatre Toronto is organising - and getting a discount, which is nice! As is the fact that I can simply pay by card this time, dealing with the company direct. 

And at midnight on Friday, I'll be watching Newsies, a new musical based on the true story of a newspaper strike, with the same group. Available for free, which is nicer!