New pictures show Love/Hate star Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as you’ve never seen him before - playing the part of doomed rebel leader Pádraig Pearse in TV3’s new three-part drama Trial of the Century, which will air this spring.
The drama imagines what would have happened if Pearse was given a trial rather than being executed along with his fellow insurgents in the weeks after the 1916 Rising.
In the new series, Pearse, who was himself a barrister, must defend the actions that changed the course of Irish history. In the first episode, the British prosecution presents its case against the leader of the Rising. At a time when Home Rule was imminent and World War I was raging, was it justifiable to stand over so many deaths as the capital city burnt to the ground?
In the second instalment, Pearse mounts a robust defence of the Rising, reaching into a long history of British oppression in an attempt to prove that it is legitimate to overthrow a tyrannical regime with force.
In the third and final programme, viewers will eavesdrop on the real time deliberations of an assembled contemporary jury who have the responsibility to convict or acquit Ireland’s iconic patriot.
Andrew Bennett stars as lead prosecutor Sebastian Banks
The jury will be made up of both well-known public figures and ‘ordinary’ Irish citizens, representing all shades and flavours of Irish life, the names of which have yet to be revealed.
Filming for Trial of the Century, which was produced by Loosehorse Television and Treasure Entertainment for TV3, took place in Green Street Courthouse in Dublin's Smithfield. The court was the venue of several noted trials such as those of Wolfe Tone and Robert Emmet in 1803, John Mitchel in 1848 and other Fenian leaders. It was extensively used during the troubles from 1970 to 1990s as the home of the Special Criminal Court.
David Heap stars as Judge Bonham
Also featured in the drama are Mark Huberman as George Gavan Duffy, Andrew Bennett as lead prosecutor Sebastian Banks, Aoibhinn McGinnity as mum Catherine Foster, Denis Conway as Pearse’s senior counsel and Anthony Brophy as Eoin MacNeill.
