Is Mise Éire Eile: I Am Another Ireland was a theatre project by Crooked House Theatre Company, funded by the Irish Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and the European Solidarity Corps. It was conceived and directed by Emily B Ditkovski and written by Ditkovski, Serena Giordanengo, Yassine Barkaoui, and members of the Company.

Drawing from real-life testimonies of international protection applicants, local residents, and community leaders, Is Mise Éire Eile examines the challenges and tensions that arose when a local guest house in Newbridge was repurposed as a direct provision centre in 2023. The production brings to the stage the voices of those directly impacted, highlighting both the fears and hopes that emerged within the small town and its community.

An abridged version of Is Mise Éire Eile: I Am Another Ireland toured to secondary schools in County Kildare reaching over 200 transition year students in five schools.

The production toured nationally to eleven cities and towns across the country, performing for nearly 700 people.

Each performance on the National Tour was followed by a discussion led by local leaders from the community and discussed the immediate needs of International Protection Applicants and ways to get involved in the movement towards integration. We developed a guide for audiences that includes a list of resources to learn more and how to volunteer. For the school tour, a curriculum guide with pre and post-show exercises was supplied to schoolteachers who set the stage for the performance and carried on the learning beyond the performance itself, giving educators and community leaders much-needed tools to help local integration practice.

Crooked House tracked audience viewpoints on attitudes towards IPAs through post-show surveys. The data noted the efficacy of live theatre to deepen understanding of the migrant experience, decrease fear about IPAs themselves, and build bridges between migrant and white Irish communities.

For more information on this project, click here.