Michael Patric: a bittersweet trip down memory lane with his new play, ‘Sugar’

Newmarket Notes was delighted to chat with Michael Patric about his new play ‘Sugar’ which is on at An Culturlann on May 17th-19th at 8pm.

In it, Danyl Sweetnam describes his last days as an Irish Sugar employee. As much as he tries to stay on topic, he can’t help veering off towards ‘the craic’ and taking us on a journey of hilarious shenanigans.

Based on the closing down in 2006 of the Irish Sugar factory in Mallow with losses of hundreds of jobs, ‘Sugar’, although it has great comedic moments, is more about the human side of these events and the fight to get proper redundancy. Mallow was the last of the sugar plants to be closed in 2006, despite strong opposition locally and nationally by those who pointed out that the industry was efficient, profitable and had a future.

When asked why he chose this as the topic of his play, Michael said he wanted to write a local story that still has deep resonance in the community and it made it even more special to perform it in his home town.

Tonnes of white sugar were produced annually from beet grown on contract countrywide and processed at four strategically located factories in Carlow, Mallow, Thurles and Tuam.

“When you mention ‘The Campaign’, everyone around here knew it described the sugar beet harvesting period over a 3 to 4 month period where the Mallow factory was working 24/7,” said Michael.

The Campaign provided much needed extra employment for farmers with small holdings, publicans etc and that is why the closure was so devastating to them and the full time employees.

Michael’s character, Danyl, has a deep love and respect for his work colleagues. They have taught him the value of laughing at the serious stuff: ‘If you can keep smiling at all, you have hope’.

“I worked there from 1990 to 1994 as an apprentice mechanical fitter and it was an amazing experience,” said Michael. “As I mention in the play, ‘you must have the craic. I don’t trust any fella who can’t have d’aul craic’.”

Even though Michael decided that being a fitter wasn’t for him and acting was, his time at Irish Sugar was a massive part of his early life. The humour, camaraderie and laughter then was amazing and the resilience of his co-workers before, during and after the closure was truly astounding - ‘Keep laughing, keep smiling and it made things easier to bear.’

‘Sugar’ tickets are on sale for €20 and are on sale at https://ticketstop. live/events/197