The Man in Black

This play was inspired by the story of my grandmother’s sisters.

My grandmother, Attracta Fanning, was the only one of her sisters to marry.

She married James, “Jemme” Fanning, a farmer from Meath.

They had the first automated dog racing track in Ireland. They also had twleve children. The third one was my Dad, Joe.

Attracta had sisters. None of them had kids. They all became nuns. One of them, “Euphrasia,” became the Mother Superior of a closed order in inner city Dublin helping the poor. The other left Ireland as a missionary to Korea and Africa.

I often wondered what happened to all those young women who disappeared into continents like Africa. Attracta did too.

She never saw her sister again after she left Ireland.