Subjects of 'the machinery of citizenship': The Death and Resurrection of Mr Roche and The Gentle Island at the Dublin Theatre Festival

Discusses Thomas Kilroy's 'The Death and Resurrection of Mr Roche' (1968) and Brian Friel's 'The Gentle Island' (1971)in which homosexuality is integral to the plots. in the context of their performance at the Dublin Theatre Festival of those years and sunsequent perfomances in 1989 and 1988 coinciding with the culmination of Norris's campaign in 1988 when the European Court of Human Rights called on Ireland to end its violation of Article 8 of the Convention of Human Righs and repeal the Offences Against the Person Act (1861). The period between then and the law's final repeal in 1993 saw an upsurge of demand for sexual freedom and expression.