Unsolved 1958 Irish murder becomes Brisbane Festival dance drama
A 1958 unsolved murder in County Kerry, Ireland, inspired a famous play and now a dance drama at Brisbane Festival.
Moss Moore, a bachelor farmer in Kerry, was found bashed and strangled in 1958, hidden under a ledge near a stream just 18 metres from his home. Moss Moore had vanished eight days earlier.
Moore had been feuding with neighbour Dan Foley over a fence Foley erected on disputed land. Foley was reportedly said "only one man" would attend the court hearing.
Foley was never convicted and died five years later. Playwright John B. Keane based his 1965 play The Field directly on the Moore case, and it passed into Irish folklore.
Cork-based theatre-maker Luke Murphy has created Scorched Earth, an 80-minute show that combines crime drama with contemporary dance, reimagining property disputes and their violent consequences.
- Maurice Moore, bachelor farmer
- The victim
- 1958, County Kerry, Ireland
- When and where
- 18 metres under a ledge near a stream
- Distance from home
- The Field by John B. Keane, 1965
- Inspired play
Why it mattersThe story reveals how property disputes have driven violent crime in Ireland for generations, and how a real unsolved case becomes myth and art.
AustraliaBrisbane Festival audiences can see a new theatrical take on an Irish historical murder that shaped the country's cultural memory.
Corroborated bytheage.com.au·watoday.com.au
✓ Claims checked against the source. checked 11 d ago
