The true story of Jimmy Gralton, the only Irish person to be deported from post-Independence Ireland, has been adapted for the stage by the Abbey Theatre.
The play had its premiere in Carrick-on-Shannon and will open in the Abbey Theatre in Dublin later this month.
Jimmy's Hall tells the story of farmer Jimmy Gralton, from Effrinagh in Co Leitrim, who built a hall for local people to meet, dance and talk politics, but who came into conflict with church and State.
Abbey Theatre director Graham McLaren said he was deported "for the ideas in his head".
Jimmy was a communist, but his cousin Paul Gralton said he believes that was not the main reason behind his deportation, that it was more about the threat he posed to the authority of the church.
No charges were ever brought against Jimmy, who held American and Irish citizenship, and who was deported as "an undesirable alien" in 1933.
He died in New York in 1945, never having returned to Ireland.
