Lisdoon Nirvana
A one-man dramatic monologue by Frankie McCafferty
at Wexford Arts Centre
Report: Jackie Hayden
Saturday, January 31, 2026
RELIVING THE LAST LISDOONVARNA MUSIC FESTIVAL
The last music festival at Lisdoonvarna in Co Clare took place in 1983 with a line-up that included Rory Gallagher, Christy Moore, Stockton’s Wing, De Danann, Van Morrison Moving Hearts and more. In case you didn’t get there, or got there and missed it because there were “other things” to do, Frankie McCafferty’s impressionistic monologue offers a fine re-enactment of the adventure. The central characters were the relatively innocent teenager Macker and his mates from Donegal, including one self-identifying as a future rock star. Also along for the ride, as it were, came some lasses from Northern Ireland who were expected to bring the condoms that were still banned in the Catholic-oppressed south.
McCafferty, who also wrote the script, played some basic chords on an acoustic guitar while the audience took their seats. In the space of the busy 75 minutes that followed he managed to convey the uncertainties surrounding their trek into the deep south as he slipped effortlessly from one character to another, often in mid-sentence and sometimes with a gesture or a flourish that conveyed their gender as well as their innocence. The compulsory stop the ladies had to make at the border was effectively conveyed, especially the scene where one of them had to answer an urgent call of nature.
The anonymous music playing in the background evoked the atmosphere of the event itself while the lads dealt with such key issues as bad toilets, an iffy tent and riots involving some Hells Angels that sealed the festival’s fate. They had been engaged “to bolster security” by people clearly unaware that a man had been killed under identical circumstances in the USA in 1969 at a Rolling Stones gig.
Despite his innocence, Macker managed to lose his virginity, a segment that was convincingly enacted by McCafferty to complete the customary convergence of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll. It was less than 40 years ago but that Ireland seemed like a different planet now. So, much kudos to McCafferty and his powers of observation for taking us back there with a piece of theatre that was funny, entertaining and educational.
Jackie Hayden is a former general manager of Hot Press and a music expert on the Wexford Arts Centre’s performance sub-commitee.
