A celebration of the work and achievements of Sophie Mary Peirce-Evans (Lady Heath), Irish Aviator and sportswoman, born in Knockaderry near Newcastle West . As part of a Decade of Commemorations Artists Call Out, Writer and Producer Ella Daly and Aeronautical Engineer and Pilot Ruth Bagnell proposed a project celebrating the life and work of Lady Mary Heath and encouraging women in aviation by working with young women in the Newcastle West area.
Ella has a background in working with young people through her 8 years as General manager of Dublin Youth Theatre and various work with Fresh Film, Limerick Youth Theatre and Youth Theatre Ireland. Ella is a playwright and has in the past written and produced a play based on her own experiences and source materials from a series of 100 year old Love Letters found in an antique shop, her second piece of work was based on her experience of being a family carer and was written based on interviews conducted with other family carers and research into the acre landscape in Ireland. Ruth is an aeronautical engineer, studied at the University of Limerick and having worked globally before taking up her current role and an airworthiness inspector at the Irish Aviation Authority, she is also a trained pilot and flies a Cessna 150 out of Coonagh and Ballyboughal Airfields regularly. Ruth additionally works with young people in Scouting Ireland encouraging young people and young women in particular to get involved in aviation and through her work with the annual Special day of Flying event for children with special needs. She is involved with aviation enthusiasts all over Ireland lending support to events, fly-ins and repair and maintenance of Irish Historic Flight aircraft. Both women are passionate about encouraging young people to be active parts of making work and seeing themselves as future artists, engineers and leaders.
The project explored the life of the famed athlete and pilot with young people, working with them to write a series of short monologues about key moments in her life. The young peoples were recruited with the assistance of Foroige in Newcastle West.
The monologues explored Lady Mary’s troubled childhood, her early interest in Aviation and her decision to train for her Pilots Licence and subsequent campaigning for rescinding the ban on female commercial pilots, her success as an athlete and her record setting solo flight from Cape Town to London.
As part of our research we made a trip to see a Stearman Bi-plane, the kind of open Cockpit aircraft Lady Mary would have travelled in on her solo flight from Capetown to London. The Stearman is hangared at Lyons Estate on County Kildare and we travelled up to Weston Airport, who kindly hosted us in their VIP arrivals suites before giving us a tour of their hangars, air traffic control tower and the brand new Bristow Helicopters Ireland Rescue Helicopter and facilities. We then travelled to Lyons estate to see and sit into the Steerman, this gave the young people some idea of the physical strength required for such a journey and an appreciation for her commitment to flying. We spoke to the Pilot Sean Bennett who told us what it was like to fly an open cockpit aircraft over large areas, how much flying time she would have per day with the fuel capacity of her aircraft and the obstacles she would have faced as a solo pilot..
The monologues will now be recorded and edited into 5 x sound files and made available on a dedicated project website via QR code’s to be played by anybody visiting key sites in Knockaderry and Newcastle West. The mural in Newcastle West town centre for example could have one such code attached with the others linked within the website and also through further QR codes placed around the town and in Knockaderry.