The Flats: A Play in Three Acts (Belfast 1971)

The Catholic working-class Donellan family live in a block of flats in 1969 Belfast, which is being patrolled by the British army. The women of the family are anti-violence, but the men seek to actively defend the home and family, describing the struggle of life as being that of privilege versus underprivilege, rather than motivated by religious difference. With tension rising in the area, an angry Protestant crowd begins to march on the flats; meanwhile, a neighbour of the Donellans, and one of the last remaining Protestants in the flats, runs into the street to get help for her ailing mother. Tragedy results, and the play ends with death and mourning.