Irene Melaugh

[Extract courtesy of "Your Local Sunday", May 29th 2005]

I had no idea where the suit was until one of the characters came into the story wearing it.

“I ended up marrying the man who asked me for directions. We got married in the Long Tower Chapel and I moved to America with him. I didn’t stop to think that I was going to a country that I didn’t know, I didn’t worry. I wasn’t smart enough to be worried. I was leaving all my friends and family and it didn’t really hit me until I got there.

US Culture Shock

“When I got there it was a total and utter culture shock. I went to San Francisco a few years ago to visit my son and I found it very much like here, the shopping. television and all the usual mod cons. But when I first arrived in America we had nothing like that here, they were so advanced. They had these massive shopping malls and when I left Derry all we had was Austins and Woolworths.

“The speed of life there was difficult to adjust to. We lived in Buffalo, which was four miles from Niagra Falls, on the border between Canada and America. It was so cold there in the winter. Every house had two doors. In winter a storm door and an inner front door and in summer a screen door to keep the insects out and the same with the windows. Sometimes in winter we would waken to find five feet of snow had fallen overnight and it was an effort just to get out of the house.

“I really missed my family and friends. In Buffalo like most places in America there are many different communities.. German, Polish and Italian, but very few Irish. I lived in the Italian Community and loved it. The Italians are like the Irish, they’re very up front and family orientated and great craic. My neighbours were mostly older people and used to make me pasta and pizza and to this day I still love Italian food. I think they felt sorry for me, they looked on me as a bit of an orphan because my husband’s family lived in Pennsylvania and I had no one else there.

“I lived there for seven years when I became ill. I decided to come home for an extended holiday and never went back.

“When I came home I worked in my brothers shop. I also worked in a jeweller’s shop and did some counselling for Interlink. Over the years I had three more children. I thought about going back to school at different points but the children were more important.

Moving on

Many years later when Irene’s children had grown tip she found herself at a loose end when they all left home within a few months of each other.

“‘The children had been my life for so long and I just woke up one morning and thought: ‘What am I going to do?’ I joined the Galliagh Women’s Group and I was doing a course with them when a tutor from the North West Institute came into verify the work. I wrote a poem for the verifier and she really liked it and not long after that I started tutoring in the North West Institute.

“I joined an all-woman comedy group called ‘Stretchmarks’ and started writing ten minute sketches. It was great experience because it gave me a chance to see how t(i structure something like that, with a beginning, a middle and an end. From time to time I commissioned for local organisations to write sketches about social issues like drug awareness.

They used to ask me, if I could make depression funny and that was the kind of thing I did.

“A friend of mine told me an unusual story about her father’s only suit. It gave me the idea for ‘Me Da’s Suit’.  I really enjoyed writing what would turn out to be my first full length play. When I finished writing it I thought it was a good effort and that I might be able to get some one to stage it. I took it to The Playhouse in Derry where it debuted in October 2003 and played to packed houses every night.”

Irene has enjoyed massive success with ‘Me Da’s Suit and her next play, ‘The Dumped Divorcees Support Group’ is due for release in February.

Meanwhile, Irene is adamant that Derry should have its own soap opera and would have no problem producing such a show.

“This town is hiving with stories and characters, they love to see their own and something like this would go down really well.”

In the meantime Irene is concentrating her efforts on more writing for the stage, with two more plays in the production stage. This former shirtmaker looks set to be gracing our stages again and again in the future.