Pure Medicine comes to The Dock with stellar reviews

Actor and writer Cahal Flynn reminisces about a time when old boys told tales by the fire and a story could take you on an adventure.

“In the 1980s the Midland Health Board threw out a fine suggestion that families get paid to take in old folk with nowhere to go. Some old country houses gave up a few rooms. For a brief period of my childhood, a few old men moved in.

“They came with nothing but clothes and stories, and before they left, they took their soulful stories and their sad eyes and their gappy grins and their long songs and buried them into the mortar of our home. They were skinny and fat and funny flawed and earthy and pure, real and unreal…”

This Friday, February 3, Pure Medicine, comes to The Dock after two sold-out shows with stellar reviews in Axis Ballymun.

This is a wonderful exploration of a time during the 1980s when people opened their homes to elderly folk from their community who were lonely with nowhere else to go.

A one-man show, Pure Medicine delves into the resulting exchanges of stories, histories and friendships – all fascinating for the imagination of an inquisitive young boy, whose family opened up their home to participate in this social project.

Not an entirely new concept, the boarding of elderly people with families in their community had been standard in other European countries, but it was only in the 1960s,’70s and ‘80s that it was introduced and trialled here, starting in Dublin and spreading into the midland and western counties.

Many of us probably still remember this within our communities, or indeed, in our own homes.

In this one-man show, actor and writer Cahal Flynn explores his own experiences of this stage of our social history, during his childhood in rural Ireland, as he reminisces about a time when old boys told tales by the fire and a story could take you on an adventure.

Originally from Newtownforbes, Flynn has strong family connections in Rooskey and the broader region.

For bookings, visit www.thedock.ie  or you can call the box office on 071 9650 828.