“And the seven angels, which had the seven trumpets, prepared themselves to sound. The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.”

– Revelations 8:6-9

It must have seemed like some terrible divine retribution. In the mid-1800’s, approximately one million Irish men, women and children died as a result of what came to be known as the 'Great Famine'. The 'Great Famine' resulted from the failure of the potato crop, Ireland's staple food at the time, over a period of several successive years. But the Irish people are known to carry a courageous heart, a determined spirit and a deep-seated sense of faith and good cheer, even in the face of such dire adversity. It is these attitudes and beliefs that are examined by playwright William Weber in No Second Trumpet, now receiving its world premiere at the Celtic Arts Center.

Director James Horan was drawn to No Second Trumpet, in part, because of his own Irish roots. “My paternal grandparents are from County Roscommon,” he explains, “which, I understand, had a greater loss of life, proportionately, than any other county during the famine. The play is set in 1852 in the wake of the famine, in the village of Leap in County Cork, near the coast. The themes of the piece — the love, courage and pride of the Irish people in the face of extreme hardship — also speak to me.”

The name of the play refers to the "second trumpet of the Lord" as described in the book of Revelations. When the first trumpet sounded, "there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of the trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up." Says Horan, “To me, this seems an apt description, if not quite literal, of what happened in Ireland during the 'Great Famine'. And what the characters in the play want desperately to avoid, both figuratively and literally, is the second trumpet, i.e., ‘a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.’”

In 1979, William Weber’s No Second Trumpet won the Audrey Woods Playwriting Competition at American University in Washington D.C., where it had a single-weekend run. Actor Craig Raisner, who appears in this production, was a student at AU at the time and was in that brief college presentation. Several years ago, he gave Horan a copy of the original typewritten script, which had multiple mark-outs and handwritten notes in the pages. Horan felt the play had promise, and went to great lengths to try and locate William Weber. All efforts were unsuccessful. Still, Horan believed in the play and organized several readings at the Celtic Arts Center before deciding to produce it.