A darkly comic Irish drama set in Ballinrobe, Co. Mayo, following a Garda’s unravelling as buried painful truths come to the surface.

Following acclaimed performances in Athlone and Castlebar, where audiences were captivated by its raw honesty, dark humour, and powerful central performance, The Crucified Silence now comes to the Galway Fringe Festival!

The play follows Joe, a small-town local guard with An Garda Síochána, who has finally crossed a line he cannot easily step back from after a volatile altercation with his superintendent. We join him as he drinks around the town and evokes nostalgic and vivid imagery of familiar local landmarks and meeting places such as The Bowers walk, Art O’Neill’s Bar and Geoff’s pub, grounding the story firmly in the locality that shaped him.

Unmistakably Irish, Joe’s voice is rich with storytelling, deflection, and an undercurrent of vulnerability that slowly rises to the surface. Through moments that are both comedic and dark, the play explores themes of loneliness, alcoholism, loss, heartbreak, and parenthood, hinting at a life once filled with connection and meaning but derailed by tragedy, with traces of lost young love woven through his recollections.

Written and performed by Mick Donnellan, The Crucified Silence balances theatrical intensity with intimate confession. Its stripped-back style allows the audience to sit closely with Joe’s inner world, where silence speaks as loudly as words, revealing a man struggling to reconcile who he was with who he has become as he lyrically draws us toward the drama’s devastating climax.

Don’t miss Mick Donnellan’s compelling one-man play as it brings Joe’s story full circle, offering Galway audiences a chance to experience a deeply Irish tale rooted in the heart of of the West of Ireland.