A SECRET LOVE

Adapted as a radio play by Val O’Donnell from the short story
The Trusting and The Maimed by James Plunkett.

James Plunkett’s short story, The Trusting and the Maimed, is regarded as one of the author’s most engaging and lyrical stories.

It centres on the plight of a young, single, unmarried girl who becomes pregnant in Ireland in the early 1950s. It focuses, episodically and objectively, on the various responses of friends, family and others to Rita Kilshaw’s predicament, and their conditioning by the social values and strong religious beliefs of the time.

Although written seventy years ago, James Plunkett’s powerful story has much contemporary relevance, given the serious efforts made in recent times to acknowledge the failings of some of the most powerful institutions in the State, and wider society, in caring for single, unmarried mothers.

Val O’Donnell
March 2024

Directed by Mary Conlon

No prior booking for rehearsed readings.

Patrons are advised to arrive early to avoid disappointment.

There will be a raffle!!