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October 03, 2006

IRA Changed Radically Says IMC

News About Ireland & The Irish

BB 10/03/06 IRA 'Changed Radically', Says IMC
SF 10/03/06 Paisley Told To Face Up To His Political Responsibilities
BN 10/03/06 Brown 'To Continue NI Peace Policies'
BN 10/03/06 Blair To Meet SF Ahead Of Devolution Talks
UT 10/03/06 Anonymity Plea For Wright Inquiry
IT 10/04/06 Government Crisis Eases After Ahern Admits 'Error'
SF 10/03/06 Government Should Go, 'The Sooner The Better'
BB 10/03/06 Loyalists Jailed Over Blackmail
IT 10/04/06 Pirate Queen: All Aboard For Broadway

*************************

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/5404774.stm

IRA 'Changed Radically', Says IMC

The IRA has changed radically and some of its most
important structures dismantled, the body monitoring
paramilitary activity is set to say.

The government hopes the report by the Independent
Monitoring Commission will help its efforts to restore
devolution before the 24 November deadline.

This will be the IMC's most positive report yet about IRA
activities.

It will say the IRA does not want to go back to violence
and no longer has the capacity to mount a sustained
campaign.

The IMC's 12th report, published on Wednesday, will
indicate that a number of key parts of the IRA's structure
have been dismantled or substantially reduced.

It will say some IRA members remain involved in crime, but
that they are not acting with the authority of the
organisation's leadership.

The commission will say there is not enough evidence or
intelligence information for it to say who killed Denis
Donaldson, the self-confessed British spy and former head
of Sinn Fein's office at Stormont, who was shot dead in
County Donegal in April.

BBC home affairs correspondent Vincent Kearney said:
"Turning to loyalists, the report will say that senior
members of both the UDA and UVF are trying to end
criminality within the organisations, but that criminal and
paramilitary activity is still widespread.

"It will also say that the attempted murder of Mark
Haddock, the leading loyalist who was shot six times in
May, was sanctioned by the UVF leadership.

"The British and Irish governments will like what they hear
about the IRA but, with local politicians due to travel to
Scotland next week for talks aimed at restoring devolution,
they will be keen to hear the response from the DUP."

'Patient determination'

On Tuesday, the prime minister said he hoped the latest
report from the Independent Monitoring Commission will
indicate that the "conflict" in Northern Ireland is over.

Tony Blair was speaking after meeting Spanish PM Jose Luis
Zapatero.

"I hope that report is positive. If it is, I hope it will
indicate that the conflict is over and that we can build a
shared future," Mr Blair said at a news conference in
Madrid.

"The one thing I have learned is that this is a report
which will be very important coming nine years into the
process, and there is no other way to make these things
work other than patient determination."

The Independent Monitoring Commission was set up by the
British and Irish governments in January 2004.

Most of its reports have concentrated on activity by
paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland.

However, it also monitors the "normalisation" of security
measures in the province.

Its four commissioners come from Northern Ireland, the
Republic of Ireland, Britain and the US.

Published: 2006/10/03 22:35:17 GMT
© BBC MMVI

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http://www.sinnfein.ie/news/detail/16165

Paisley Told To Face Up To His Political Responsibilities

Published: 3 October, 2006

Sinn Féin MP for Newry and Armagh Conor Murphy has today
told DUP leader Ian Paisley that he needs to face up to his
political responsibilities and to convince the nationalist
and republican community that he is willing to share the
future on this island with them.

Speaking today Mr Murphy said:

"Sinn Féin has consistently faced up to our
responsibilities and the associated challenges for this
process. Only a short time remains until the 24th November
deadline. It has been clear for quite some time that
decision time is looming for Ian Paisley. To this point he
appears intent on hiding behind preconditions to avoid a
real political engagement.

"After years of sectarian anti-catholic rhetoric from Ian
Paisley, it is of course welcome that a meeting between
himself and Archbishop Sean Brady will take place. However,
it is ironic that Ian Paisley, the majority voice of
political unionism will not talk to Gerry Adams, the
majority voice of political nationalism unless it is about
Gerry Adams repenting for his 'sins' while at the same time
Ian Paisley will only talk to the leader of the Catholic
Church in Ireland, Archbishop Brady about political
matters.

"This apparently strange logic may sit well with those who
seek to resist change in our community. Its objective
however is avoidance of real dialogue. Ian Paisley cannot
hide forever. He cannot be permitted to freeze the peace
process." ENDS

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http://www.breakingnews.ie/2006/10/03/story279490.html

Brown 'To Continue NI Peace Policies'

03/10/2006 - 18:57:40

Gordon Brown will continue Tony Blair’s peace process
policies in the North if he succeeds him as Britain's Prime
Minister, it was claimed tonight.

As Northern Ireland’s politicians prepared for crucial
talks next week to retore devolution, it emerged Ulster
Secretary Peter Hain hinted today Mr Brown would make this
clear soon to the province’s politicians.

A source at the Northern Ireland Government Affairs Group’s
annual general meeting in Hillsborough castle told The
Press Association: “Last week, Peter Hain said the (Rev Ian
Paisley’s) Democratic Unionists would be making a mistake
if they believed they would get a better deal under Gordon
Brown than they would under Tony Blair.

“He went further today at our annual general meeting,
saying people should expect to hear something clearer from
Gordon Brown soon.”

Government sources confirmed tonight the Chancellor of the
Exchequer could indicate within weeks his determination to
see Mr Blair’s policies implemented in Northern Ireland.

It is understood Mr Brown may signal this in a letter to
political leaders.

After meeting Mr Brown at Stormont in June, Mr Paisley said
he believed the Chancellor had a deeper understanding of
Northern Ireland and of unionism.

“He is a Scotsman and he knows more about the real basic
differences that do exist in Northern Ireland,” the DUP
leader observed.

“He has always been very sympathetic. He has always taken
the time to go the second mile.”

However nationalists also noted during the visit Mr Brown
stuck rigidly to Government policy, warning Assembly
members the Government expected the November 24 deadline
set by Mr Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern for restoring
devolution would be met.

The Chancellor told them: “This is not a date plucked out
of the air.

“This is a real deadline and a deadline we expect to be
met.”

*************************

http://www.breakingnews.ie/2006/10/03/story279445.html

Blair To Meet SF Ahead Of Devolution Talks

03/10/2006 - 15:41:57

British Prime Minister Tony Blair is to hold talks with the
Sinn Féin leadership on Friday, just days before crucial
talks on devolution for Northern Ireland, it emerged today.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, chief negotiator Martin
McGuinness and Party chairperson Mary Lou McDonald will
meet Mr Blair at Chequers.

Both sides are also due to take part in talks in St
Andrews, Scotland, next Wednesday involving other Northern
Ireland parties and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's government.

Devolution collapsed in the North almost four years ago.

Mr Blair and Mr Ahern hope they can secure an agreement
involving the Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists and
Sinn Féin which will see them form a power sharing
government at Stormont before November 24.

However, they have significant obstacles to overcome.

Mr Paisley's DUP wants assurances that the IRA has truly
given up all criminal and paramilitary activity and they
also want Sinn Féin to publicly endorse the Police service
of Northern Ireland before a power sharing administration
is formed.

Sinn Féin has insisted it will resolve the policing issue
once a power sharing government is established.

This Friday's talks between Sinn Féin and Mr Blair will
come two days after a report by ceasefire watchdog the
Independent Monitoring Commission.

The British and Irish governments hope the report will go
some way towards convincing the DUP that the Provisional
IRA has wound down its operations.

Senior DUP members, however, have insisted they will not be
swayed by the IMC's report alone and yesterday the party's
Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson called for proof that the
IRA's command and control structure had been dismantled.

*************************

http://u.tv/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=77085&pt=n

Anonymity Plea For Wright Inquiry

Security force witnesses in a Northern Ireland inquiry into
the prison murder of Loyalist Volunteer Force leader Billy
Wright have applied for anonymity.

By:Press Association

The Wright Inquiry confirmed today that it was considering
a number of applications, thought to involve prison
officers.

Wright, 37, was shot dead by three Irish National
Liberation Army prisoners in the Maze Prison near Belfast
on December 27, 1997.

The Government has ordered a public inquiry into his death.

A spokeswoman for the Inquiry said: "The panel has not
taken its decision yet. It relates to witnesses. It would
be unfair to individuals to identify them at this stage."

The three-strong inquiry team headed by Lord MacLean will
hear evidence into whether there were any wrongful acts or
omissions by prison authorities or other Government bodies.

Questions were raised by the dead man`s family about how
the republican killers managed to obtain a weapon and
access the prison yard where Wright was in a van on his way
to a visit.

Prison officers are expected to argue that their lives
would be endangered if they were identified during public
proceedings but human rights group British Irish Rights
Watch wants to ensure no blanket anonymity granted.

Director Jane Winter said: "They need to decide if the risk
to the person being named outweighs the public interest in
knowing who they are.

"The more senior they are, we say, the less easy it should
be to use anonymity and many of these people, we believe,
have already been named in the inquest.

"We need to know under whose watch the killing of Billy
Wright happened."

The leading loyalist`s father, David, has taken a judicial
review of the decision to convert legislation underpinning
the inquiry to the Inquiries Act 2005 which allows Northern
Ireland Secretary Peter Hain power to keep evidence secret.

The murder was one of four probed by Canadian judge Peter
Cory.

These included the killing of Belfast solicitor Pat
Finucane in his home by Ulster Defence Association gunmen
in 1989.

An investigation by Sir John Stephens from the Metropolitan
Police in London found a series of flaws in the security
force investigation.

Judge Cory also reviewed the death of Lurgan solicitor
Rosemary Nelson, who died when a bomb under her car
exploded. Her death was claimed by loyalist splinter group
the Red Hand Defenders but there were allegations of
security force involvement.

The Canadian also recommended a public inquiry into the
death of Catholic Robert Hamill battered to death in
Portadown, Co Armagh, in 1997 while police on the scene
allegedly failed to intervene.

The Hamill Inquiry has refused anonymity for officers, a
view challenged earlier this year in the High Court.

Finlay Spratt, chairman of the Prison Officers`
Association, said welfare of his members had to be
paramount.

"If a prison officer asks for anonymity then I believe that
should be granted because people are still concerned about
their safety," he added.

"It would be fair to say that these were serving prison
officers and quite a lot of them are retired now.

"They lived through 30 years of the Troubles and had to
protect their families and we are not convinced that the
attacks from paramilitaries are over."

*************************

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/front/2006/1004/1158591353072.html

Government Crisis Eases After Ahern Admits 'Error'

04/10/2006

The crisis in the Coalition Government over the Taoiseach's
acceptance of payments in 1993 and 1994 eased last night
following the Progressive Democrats' acceptance of his
explanation to the Dáil. Mr Ahern admitted his actions were
"an error and a misjudgment", but he consistently refused
to bow to Opposition demands to accept that his actions
were wrong, writes Mark Hennessy, Political Correspondent.

Following an hour-long meeting, the Progressive Democrats'
Parliamentary Party "unanimously" agreed that Mr Ahern "is
not unfit to continue in office as Taoiseach".

Despite constant pressure from the Opposition, Mr Ahern
said he was unable to identify "with certainty" the
businessmen who gave him stg£8,000 in Manchester in
September 1994.

"It was not illegal or impermissible to have done what I
did but I now regret the choices I made in those difficult
and dark times," he told a crowded Dail. "The bewilderment
caused to the public about recent revelations has been
deeply upsetting for me and others near and dear to me. To
them, the Irish people and to this House, I offer my
apologies," he said.

His 15-minute speech was applauded by Tánaiste and
Progressive Democrats leader Michael McDowell, though other
PD TDs, including former tánaiste Mary Harney, did not do
so. Fianna Fáil TDs were delighted by Mr Ahern's
performance, claiming he had seen off Fine Gael leader Enda
Kenny, Labour leader Pat Rabbitte and other Opposition
leaders.

Asked if Mr Ahern had been right to accept the Manchester
money, Mr McDowell, speaking outside the Dáil, said: "I
believe it was not right and I believe it was a serious
error of judgment for him to do it. I believe he has
apologised to the Irish people for so doing, and I believe
that that apology was owing to the Irish people for that
error of judgment.

Saying the issue is not finished, Fine Gael and Labour said
Mr Ahern had failed to explain how he had saved IR£50,000
during the years when he was separating from his wife. The
Fine Gael frontbench will meet this morning to discuss
their future actions, including the possibility of putting
down a motion of no confidence.

Mr McDowell said he believed Mr Ahern would in time "be
able to reconstitute the list of people who were present on
that occasion with some degree of accuracy". But on the
basis of the information that was available to him he was
unwilling to state as facts on the record of Dail Éireann
things about which he remained unsure, Mr McDowell said.

Mr Ahern and Mr McDowell met before yesterday's Cabinet
meeting, where the two agreed the text of the statement
made by the Taoiseach at the opening of yesterday's debate.
Tensions among some PDs rose in the hours before the debate
because of the decision by Mr McDowell not to brief
colleagues before the much-awaited Dáil encounter.

However, Mr McDowell was not criticised by any colleagues
when the parliamentary party met later: "What else could we
do? We were between a rock and a hard place," one source
said. Attacking the Opposition, the PD leader said: "It is
childish and babyish to say that we should walk off the
pitch while they are unwilling to say that (Mr Ahern) was
not unfit to continue. Ethics cuts both ways. Some of the
people there today will have a lot of answering to do in a
couple of months' time when the second report of the
Moriarty tribunal is published," he said.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said Mr Ahern's "self-serving
conduct" and Mr McDowell's acceptance of it had shown that
they had "lost their moral authority". The party's
spokesman on finance Richard Bruton said last night that Mr
Ahern and the Government should resign. "You cannot accept
such money as a minister . . .That is not an acceptable
standard," he told RTÉ's Prime Time.

Meanwhile, the planning tribunal is to deliver its judgment
tomorrow on the publication by The Irish Times of
information from confidential papers detailing payments to
Mr Ahern. The hearing, originally scheduled for today, will
take place at 2 pm tomorrow.

© The Irish Times

*************************

http://www.sinnfein.ie/news/detail/16168

Government Should Go, 'The Sooner The Better' -- Ó Caoláin

Published: 3 October, 2006

Sinn Féin's Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD told the
Dáil during statements on the Taoiseach's finances this
afternoon that this Government should go, 'the sooner the
better'. Saying the Taoiseach was 'clearly wrong to accept
the personal donation' in Manchester and that the people
deserved an explanation, Deputy Ó Caoláin nevertheless
warned against letting the 'events of the last
week...distract us from this Government's long-standing
political bankruptcy, and that is something that no whip-
round will be able to remedy'.

The Cavan-Monaghan TD said:

"The Taoiseach was clearly wrong to accept the personal
donation at the Manchester event when he was Minister for
Finance. Most people believe that he was not personally
corrupt, unlike many within his party at the time. However,
only the most naïve believe that he was not aware of what
went on in the brown envelope and blank cheque culture of
the Fianna Fáil leadership and among many of its elected
members. Of course it was not confined to Fianna Fáil. Fine
Gael, as shown by the Tribunals, has shown that it too
shared a similar culture.

"There is no suggestion that members of the current Fianna
Fáil/PD cabinet have personally benefited from bribes or
backhanders during their term of office. But there's an old
saying about the British journalist that could be adapted
to this Government:

"You cannot hope to bribe or twist, thank God, the British
journalist

But seeing what the man will do, unbribed, there's no
occasion to.

"During this Government's term of office property
speculators and developers have benefited directly as never
before from Government decisions. The Fianna Fáil tent at
the Galway Races has become a symbol of power, greed and
elitism in Ireland the way Dublin Castle and the Kildare
Street Club once were. The gulf of inequality in our
society has widened -- something that the new Tánaiste, the
self-styled moral guardian of the Government, thinks is a
good thing.

"If it was wrong for the then Minister for Finance to
accept money gifts from wealthy business people in 1994
isn't it even more wrong for a Taoiseach and a Government,
for the past decade, to surrender the housing policy of the
State to speculators and unscrupulous developers who are
fleecing families with the ever spiralling cost of houses.

"These are the same developers who successfully lobbied the
Government to amend Part V of the Planning and Development
Act so that they would not have to meet their legal
obligation to provide 20% social and affordable housing in
all developments. This Government has brought in a form of
legalised bribery -- because it has allowed the developers
to pay off the local authorities. What other lobby group
could have turned around a key piece of legislation in the
same way?

"That is just one of the many reasons why this Taoiseach,
this Tánaiste and the rest of this Cabinet should be thrown
out of Government. These are far bigger issues than the
current controversy. If the Manchester payment was, in the
words of the Irish Independent, morally wrong, are
decisions which adversely affect the lives of hundreds of
thousands of people not also morally wrong? Are they not
also deserving of media attention and commentary?

"What about the massive tax breaks and the allocation of
land at public hospital sites for the developers of private
for-profit hospitals? This is in the context of a grossly
inequitable health service where instead of the promised
3,000 beds, we have had a thousand trolley usages in the
last five days.

"I might add that there are no marches on the street about
the current controversy but people are taking to the
streets demanding their healthcare rights as we saw
recently in Monaghan and as we will see again on Saturday
21st October when we in Sinn Féin hold a healthcare rally
in Dublin.

"In the last number of weeks we have seen the announcement
of almost fourteen hundred job losses across this state in
Limerick, Carlow, Cork, Waterford, Inchicore in Dublin and
in my own home county of Monaghan. It is unlikely however,
that many of them will have circles of wealthy friends
ready to help them out in such a time of financial crisis.

"Today at Ballinaboy in Mayo, we saw another example of the
natural consequences of the connection between Fianna Fáil
and big business. Early this morning Gardaí were outsourced
to Shell Oil to serve as their enforcers against local
people who have maintained a round the clock vigil at the
site in protest at attempts to force a dangerous and unsafe
pipeline through their community.

"This morning two of them were injured while being dragged
off the road at the behest of Shell. The people of Mayo
stood up to evictions by rack-renting landlords during the
Land War. They will stand up to Shell Oil as well. And what
about the role of former Minister Ray Burke in the
negotiation of the terms for oil and gas exploration, the
most generous in the world to giant multinationals?

"Let there be no mistake about it, the people deserve an
explanation from the Taoiseach about this series of
payments, loans and gifts from wealthy businessmen. But the
events of the last week should not distract us from this
Government's long-standing political bankruptcy, and that
is something that no whip-round will be able to remedy.

"All of these are valid reasons for the entire Fianna
Fáil/PD Government to resign and for a General Election to
be called. And the sooner the better."

CRÍOCH

*************************

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/5402754.stm

Loyalists Jailed Over Blackmail

Two loyalists caught trying to blackmail an undercover
policeman have been jailed for eight years each at Belfast
Crown Court.

Robert Lowey, 29, and David Alexander Bennett, 31, from
Fraser Pass, Belfast, admitted blackmailing an officer
while claiming to be from the loyalist UVF.

They were arrested last August after the officer, posing as
a building contractor, handed over £23,000.

Belfast Crown Court was told on Tuesday that the pair
demanded £50,000 a year.

The blackmail happened between 9 and 18 August 2005. Lowey
and Bennett demanded the money to cover three sites, the
court was told.

Defence lawyers said the two men got involved in an effort
to solve their financial problems, brought about by their
drug addiction.

They said the men had been used by "more sinister
elements".

But the Crown Court judge said the crime bore all the
characteristics of a protection racket.

He said that it was committed not out of desperation, but
in a cold, calculating fashion with the aim of getting
money.

He commended the effectiveness of the police operation.

Published: 2006/10/03 12:09:53 GMT
© BBC MMVI

*************************

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/features/2006/1004/1158591350691.html

Pirate Queen: All Aboard For Broadway

Thanks to a savvy marketing approach, advance sales for The
Pirate Queen have topped €4 million, Moya Doherty and John
McColgan tell Denis Staunton

She was a plundering warrior described as the "chief
commander and director of thieves and murderers at sea" and
a pioneering leader who battled with English administrators
but formed an alliance with Queen Elizabeth I. Now Grace
O'Malley, or Granuaile, has become the subject of a
spectacular musical from the producers of Riverdance and
the creators of Les Miserables and Miss Saigon.

The Pirate Queen started previews in Chicago on Monday and
opens there at the end of this month before transferring to
Broadway in April 2007. With a budget reliably reported to
be more than $10 million (€8 million), the show has been
four years in the making and could take a year or more to
recoup its costs.

After the success of Riverdance, which continues to tour
around the world, John McColgan and Moya Doherty were under
pressure to produce a follow-up dance show, but decided
instead to produce a musical.

"We wanted it be Irish, based on an Irish historical
character, have an Irish sensibility," McColgan says. "We
wanted it to be epic in scale. Second, we wanted someone
who we felt could write something on that scale, and we
decided that the people we wanted to work with and the
people we've always admired in the world of modern musicals
were Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg.

"After much deliberation and discussion about whether it
would be the Great O'Neill or Daniel O'Connell or Parnell -
all these figures from history that might lend themselves
to the world of musical theatre - we decided on Granuaile,
Grace O'Malley, because we felt that she had the epic
story, a great love story, her relationship with Elizabeth,
all of that."

Set on the west coast of Ireland and in the court of Queen
Elizabeth I, with sea battles in between, The Pirate Queen
stars Stephanie H Block as Grace and Linda Balgord as
Elizabeth. Eight Irish dancers have joined an ensemble of
12 Broadway dancers to produce an unlikely mixture of dance
styles that choreographer Carol Leavy Joyce, herself a
world champion Irish dancer, says are integrating
seamlessly.

"Irish dance would have been much looser, much more free-
flowing, much wilder, so that to me is very evident in
telling the story, say, of a wedding in that period. So
that's where I feel the actual gelling of the two styles,
the contemporary style and the Irish style, has worked very
well. Because they bring their looseness to it, they bring
their acrobatic style to it and at the same time you have
the Irish rhythm going consistently through it," she says.

Schönberg, who composed the music, took part in a series of
workshops with traditional Irish musicians, visiting Dublin
four times to explore the musical and emotional range of
traditional instruments. Doherty says, however, that the
result is a contemporary musical with an Irish flavour
rather than a narrowly Irish experience.

"We hope to be creating an intelligent, entertaining piece
of theatre that will have an international application.
This is not being designed for any Irish-American audience,
or for any American audience. It's being designed for a
sophisticated theatrical audience," she says.

Doherty is also keen to pre-empt complaints by historical
purists about the accuracy of the story told in The Pirate
Queen, pointing out that the world of 16th-century Ireland
has to be crammed into two hours of musical theatre. "It
isn't a history lesson and this story is based on the life
of Grace O'Malley. It is not the actual life of Grace
O'Malley. We've taken from what we know exists in history
but Alain and Claude-Michel have actually created their own
Grace O'Malley, and the characters who surround her are
really created from their imagination, based loosely on the
history," she says.

Among the most intriguing elements of Grace O'Malley's
story is her relationship with Elizabeth I, whose
administrators she battled with but with whom she
eventually allied herself. Balgord, whose high soprano
distinguishes Elizabeth from all other characters in the
show, acknowledges that the queen she plays is not strictly
the monarch biographies portray.

"She's very decisive, which Elizabeth wasn't, from the
research I've done. But for our purposes she's quite direct
about what she wants done with Grace O'Malley. It's a very
interesting parallel in our show with the story of Grace
because they both really have to give up a great deal for
their people," she says.

With spectacular battles and aerial fights, The Pirate
Queen is so technically complex that preview-goers are
likely to see only a scaled-down version. Changes are
likely throughout the run in Chicago before the show is
"frozen" about 10 days before it opens in New York.

Opening outside New York is traditional for musicals, but
McColgan and Doherty have devised a non-traditional
strategy for boosting ticket sales before the move to
Broadway.

"We were sitting in a marketing meeting in Chicago about
three or four months ago when one of the figures that came
out was that 40 per cent of bookings for Broadway shows
nowadays come via the internet and it's sometimes up to 60
per cent," says McColgan.

"This triggered a thought in us - if that is the case, why
can we not use that in a more creative and intelligent way
to speak directly to potential theatre-goers via the web .
. . that we should engage with people who go on a website."

Drawing on their background in television, the producers
are broadcasting on the show's website a reality TV-style
diary of the making of the musical, with interviews with
performers and other members of the creative team. The
scheme appears to be working because, more than six months
away from opening night on Broadway, The Pirate Queen has
already taken more than $5 million (€4 million) in advance
sales.

Musicals can, of course, go spectacularly wrong, and New
York critics can be merciless about original shows,
prompting many producers to choose the safer option of
"jukebox musicals" based on well-known hits. Doherty is
hoping the critics will like The Pirate Queen but she
points out that they don't always have the last word when
it comes to success or failure.

"One very good example is Wicked, which was absolutely
panned by the critics and it is the biggest hit in the past
five to six years in musical theatre. It's sitting here in
Chicago, it's been sitting for a year. It opened in the
West End. It captured the imagination of the audience and
they completely ignored what the critics said."

www.thepiratequeen.com

© The Irish Times

----
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