Acclaimed Bloody Sunday play coming to Buncrana after sell-out run in Derry

An acclaimed play based on real-life testimonies of female relatives of the Bloody Sunday victims is coming to Buncrana in the new year.

4 Days in Derry, written and directed by Bernadette MacFarland, will be staged for one night in St Mary’s Hall on January 17. 

Following a sell-out run in Derry’s Millennium Forum earlier this year, the Buncrana performance is the first time the play will be performed in Donegal. 

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to perform our play in Buncrana,”  Ms MacFarland said. 

“The people here have always been enormously supportive of the campaign for justice for the victims of Bloody Sunday, and 4 Days in Derry, which tells the stories - in their own words - of the wives, mothers, daughters and sisters of the men who were slain, is part of that endeavour to ensure that the atrocities carried out by state forces on innocent civilians, and the devastating impact it had on their families, are never forgotten.

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“Telling these women's stories to audiences far and wide is so important to us. We are doing a mini-tour of the play in 2026 and we are delighted to be taking it to Inishowen.”

The play was written after Bernadette sat down with female relatives of the Bloody Sunday victims and listened to their personal accounts of the four days in and around one of the worst atrocities of The Troubles.

What they told her formed the basis of thirteen powerful and poignant monologues that are delivered in the play.

“Those interviews are an experience I will never forget,” said Bernadette. “I laughed with them. I cried with them. They told me how they coped - and didn’t cope. I came away from each interview thinking, 'What strong women'; what strong, strong women’.

“When it was finally performed, I was not prepared for the reaction. I could hear people crying in the audience. The actors delivering the monologues were emotional - because they needed to be, but also because they were overwhelmed by the emotion of the words they were speaking, which were full of rage, grief, pain and loss.”  

Anthony Barber, manager of St Mary’s Hall, said: “There’s been so much happening here lately – we’ve just had Calendar Girls, which was a great success, and earlier in the year we had The Four of Us and then Three Dog Night, from America, in October. 

“The hall is an iconic building. It’s a nice, intimate venue for live performance and we’re delighted to be hosting 4 Days in Derry.”

Tickets for 4 Days in Derry at St Mary’s Hall, Buncrana, January 17 are available online here or at the hall for those wishing to pay cash.