ABSTRACT
A newspaper article about John Arden in September 2003 noted how busy he still was with writing projects, and added: ‘He and his wife are also involved with local and national politics’. D’Arcy’s film, Shell Hell, is a campaigning work which certainly pulls no punches. D’Arcy’s other film concerns the case of Mary Kelly, a social activist who found that American planes were using Shannon Airport as a staging post for troops on their way to Iraq, and for illegal rendition flights. The protests about the use of Shannon Airport by the American military is where Loose Theatre, Margaretta D’Arcy’s memoirs, which she published in 2005, begin. In 2005 D’Arcy had been diagnosed with bladder cancer, and now Arden developed cancer at the base of his spine. D’Arcy developed tumours on her bladder, while Arden’s cancers forced him to use a wheelchair.
