16/02/2023
'Dorothea The Doozy' our latest radio documentary will air on Sunday next at 6pm 19th February on the Lyric Feature RTÉ lyric fm It's about Dorothea Herbert who wrote her memoir Retrospections of an Outcast 1770 to 1806 and she is a riot. She was writing about similar stories to Jane Austen but they are about real people and events.
Dorothea writes about themes which are familiar to us today, refugees from Europe (from the French revolution), travelling dancing masters and visitors from France and Italy and she describes dark skinned exotic people she admired who came to live in Ireland from India and were welcomed into society. She also tells the story of one distressed person who came and stayed with her family that she was very fond of and who would probably be described today as gender fluid or transgender.
She also writes about her romantic attachment to John Roe of Rockwell (now the school) who she believed she was married to spiritually even though he never proposed to her and experts believe this relationship may have been a product of her vivid imagination or a literary device.
There is lovely music from the era woven throughout the programme all inspired by her references Gra mo Croi, The Soldier Tired, Push About the Jorum and from the first opera she ever saw on her visit to Dublin 'The Beggar's Opera'.
Huge thanks to contributors Dr Jane Maxwell TCD Library and Archives, The Board of Trinity College Dublin for allowing access to the original manuscript written and illustrated in Dorothea's own hand. Generously supported by BAI The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. Support from RTE Independent Productions much appreciated too.
Contributors include Dr Mary Breen UCC expert on the works of Herbert, Johnny Fitzpatrick local historian and devoted Dorothea admirer, and Anne Tannam creative writing coach and poet.
Thanks to Dunlaoghaire Further Education Institute for their support and to Patrick Wall for Sound Editing. Thanks too to Nina Mullen Dfei student who helped with photography French pronunciations and recording sessions.
Most of all thanks to actor Aideen Wylde from Tipperary who channelled Dorothea through all her mood swings, temper tantrums and giggles. She gives voice to a woman whose work only took about 200 hundred years to surface! The rarity of the book in describing women's lives from the era is unique and unhoped for as Dr Jane Maxwell says. Dorothea really was a Doozy ! Have a listen Sunday 19th February 6pm RTE Lyric fm on The Lyric Feature
