An award-winning and politically charged play about the forced closure of Belfast’s Regina Coeli hostel for women will be staged in Galway City next Tuesday, October 21.

Not on Our Watch, which was first staged in 2023, dramatises the actions of staff and residents in 2021 and 2022, to save Belfast’s only hostel for women by holding a 12-week lock-in.

Their protest was supported by the Unite trade union – its backing was crucial in helping the workers resist closure and in highlighting the wider issues of domestic violence and homelessness. This play, commissioned by Kabosh Theatre Company and written by Louise Mathews, confronts the devastating link between domestic violence and homelessness. Its themes are urgent and timely, according to Kabosh artistic director Paula McFetridge.

“It is a joy to return to a work that proved so impactful and became a rallying cry for better facilities for homeless women,” she says of the current tour.

“It’s about responding to the Stormont Executive’s Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy, and encouraging people to become active and informed about what’s happening in society. Now we can unashamedly bear witness to what these brave women did.”

The playwright has written a new ending for this tour, reflecting the worsening housing crisis.

“The need has only grown – it is so much worse than when I first interviewed the staff members who fought so hard to keep Regina Coeli open,” Louise Matthews says.  “The link between homelessness and gender violence is now firmly established. While new hostels have opened, they are a drop in the ocean. Thousands of women across the north still face homelessness because of violence and abuse.”

Louise has since become a prominent activist, leading the Shift the Shame campaign to reframe people’s understanding of violence-led homelessness, and lobbying politicians at Stormont for more investment in women-only spaces.

Regina Coeli, which was opened in 1935 by the Legion of Mary, was Northern Ireland’s only dedicated women’s hostel until its closure in February 2022. The property remains empty and is currently on the market for £495,000.

The company’s tour of Not on Our Watch will close at the Roddy McCorley Heritage Centre, West Belfast (Oct 23–24), just two miles from the former hostel. And, on Tuesday, it will be at the University of Galway’s O’Donoghue Theatre, starting at 7pm.

For more information and booking, visit: https://kabosh.net.

Pictured: Louise Mathews, writer of Not On Our Watch with cast members, Rachael MCabe, Catriona McFeely, Colette Lennon-Dougal and Kabosh Artistic Director Paula McFetridge. The play comes to the University of Galway’s O’Donoghue Centre next Tuesday.