The unexpectedness of the “Nettle Horse” adventure took a new turn when I was invited to bring the show to the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith London, 1st & 2nd June 2024. It is hard to express how delighted I am or how significant these shows are for me; when i was seventeen i left Donegal…
It was a miserable October morning in 1977 when myself and Paddy Stevenson emerged from the depths of the Angel tube station into the dawn smog of Islington with the address of a squat on a scrap of paper. I put any notions of being a performer on the back burner as it was obvious i was urgently needed on the building sites to participate in the noble work of “building up and tearing England down”. Breaking ice on water barrels to knock up some muck for brickies in White City, battling the wind on scaffolding with plasterboard on the Seven Sisters Rd, or knocking old horse-hair plaster down on top of my head in the Victorian basements of Bethnal Green; my contribution to the architectural legacy of London may have been modest but vital nevertheless and Bob Geldoff didn’t sweat half as much to get his OBE.
Now i’m going back to London with “Nettle Horse”, this time i won’t get distracted. All the old navvies i worked with are hodding in heaven and due to obvious physical limitations will be unable to attend. So i’m asking you my sweet smelling socialites, ex-squatters and assorted odd balls to send a postcard to the friends and family beyond in England and tell them to go to “Nettle Horse” as there will no doubt be much craic. alternatively if you can manage it come over yourself, it’s on a bank holiday weekend 1st and 2nd June. Long story short i have to sell 360 tickets so we’d all want to shape up a bit xx