The Kerlogue

By Dermot Bolger

Afternoon Play Friday, 24th August

2007 at 2.15 pm on Radio 4

Producer Gemma McMullan

Based on real events on a turbulent night at sea on the 29th December 1943, the crew onboard a small Irish cargo ship, The

Kerlogue, risked their lives to save 168 drowning German sailors. The same sailors who had so often attacked their neutral Irish cargo fleets and killed many of their own. Aware of the rescue mission, British bombers flying overhead signalled for The

Kerlogue to re-route and head for England. However, to escape capture, the rescued German Officers onboard demanded the ship sail for France. Ireland’s neutrality during the Second World War was under serious threat.

The cast includes

Stephen O Rourke as Kevin;

Frank O Sullivan as Seamus;

Owen Roe as Captain O’ Donohue;

Ronan Wilmot as Eamon;

Miche Doherty as Dessie;

Erich Redman as Lieutenant Krausser;

Kenneth Collard as Commander Fleischer;

Stephen Grothgar as Muller.

Dermot Bolger is one of Ireland’s most prolific writers. His novels include Temptation, The Valparaiso Voyage, The Former

People, The Journey Home, Father’s Music, Night Shift and The Woman’s Daughter. His plays include The Lament for Arthur Cleary

and In High Germany. Dermot devised and edited the highly acclaimed Irish novel Finbar’s Hotel and its sequel Ladies Night

at Finbar’s Hotel (which he adapted for Radio 4. His play Temptation (adapted from his novel) was broadcast in 2003

and received great critical acclaim. Most recently his Woman’s Hour drama, Haunting Women and Afternoon plays, The Fortunestown

Kid and The Night Manager were broadcast on Radio 4. Author of various volumes of poetry, Dermot has received, among

others, The Samuel Beckett Award, The A. E. Memorial Prize, The Stewart Parker BBC Award, an Edinburgh Fringe First, The

Macaulay Fellowship, A Hennessy Literary Award and the O.Z. Whitehead Prize.