THE excellent musical drama “Blood Upon The Rose” written by Gerry Cunningham has added an extra show on Saturday, April 20 after the original Sunday, April 21 show completely sold out.  

The popular event returns to the Armadillo Theatre in Glasgow this year after a sell-out show back in April 2018.

To celebrate, The Evening Times is giving away THREE pairs of tickets to the show on Saturday, April 20. For your chance to win, name the city where the rising took place in Ireland Easter 1916 - was it Armagh, Galway or Dublin? Email your name, phone number and the answer to socialmedia@heraldandtimes.co.uk to enter. (Terms and conditions apply and competition closes on Tuesday, April 9 2019 at midnight)

The show is a sad but true, love story set in Dublin during Easter week 1916. Grace Gifford hailing from a Dublin middle-class Unionist background falls in love with leading Irish revolutionary Joseph Plunkett. Both agree to marry on Easter Sunday 1916 but a rising against British Rule in Ireland has been planned for that very day.

Plunkett is vital to the revolutionaries plans as he is the military director of operations. Grace while sympathising with his cause prefers to wait until the outcome of the rising before giving her hand in marriage. In some of the most incredible scenes ever staged, the rising is defeated and Plunkett along with his comrades are sentenced to death by execution shortly afterwards in Kilmainham Gaol.

Grace and Joseph plead to marry in the small chapel in the prison that very night. Their wish is granted and after exchanging wedding vows in the dark damp confines of the prison chapel, Plunkett is taken out the next morning and executed. Their tragic love story to this very day has found a place in the nation's heart.

Set against the background of the Easter Rising 1916, Cunningham in his well-researched writing introduces us to the lesser known internal difficulties within the Irish Volunteers. Eoin McNeil, leader of the Volunteers struggles to come to terms with the plans of Padraig Pearse, militant leader of the IRB, a secret republican movement that had successfully infiltrated all units of the  Volunteers.

Pearse wants blood spilt in order to awaken a nation from its colonial slumber. Their clash has disastrous consequences for the rising.

A superb cast of over thirty led by Lauren McCrory as Grace Gifford and Daniel Donnelly as Joseph Plunkett, retrace the steps of history and bring both knowledge and enjoyment to a well-told story that sowed the seeds of freedom and gave birth to a nation.

The musical/drama “Blood Upon The Rose” will bring you on an emotional rollercoaster that will live long in the memory. “Let the Nation Rise”,”The Hungry Eye Sees Far‘ and the beautiful song “Grace”, penned in 1985 by Sean and Frank o' Meara, among others, will instal and reinforce in you a pride in the men and women who gave everything for the cause of Irish freedom over a century ago.

Find tickets here: https://www.sec.co.uk/events/detail/blood-upon-the-rose-1