As Seán Rocks pointed out on Arena, The “Festival of Politics” has a good deal of Arts featured in it. He invited Politician Mannix Flynn on the programme to discuss his performance piece, “Fighter”, which he will stage at the festival. Seán put it to Mannix that he seems to have been fighting most of his life. Mannix prefers a different word.
“Well, you could say that I’ve been a struggler…that I’ve been struggling all my life, you know and certainly engaged in some fights, you know what I mean, of all different kinds of nature. From political to physical…I think life is a struggle and life is a fight in that sense.”
Mannix explained that the show deals with an individual combatant and “stretches into Ancient Greece”, working its way back to modern-day. He is interested in how people view a country’s call to combat and “atrocity” and how this view may change over time.
“Even listening to the new work that’s coming out about the Vietnam War and the way they’re viewing that, you see this thread running right through it.”
Mannix cautions against getting too caught up in political or philosophical interpretations of “Fighter” – and indeed, war and combat in general – reducing the subject to its simplest form.
“At the end of the day, this is about destruction. This is about death….at the end of the day, you’re going home soaked in blood.”
Listen back to the full conversation between Mannix Flynn and Seán Rocks here.