Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 6 February 2025

Making an Irish Free State City – Figures of the Cork Shakespearean Company

As time rolled on for the Cork Shakespearean Company, many of its members stayed to champion the Company, but grew older, or left to take up duties in several walks of life. A short few of these members were showcased in the press such the Cork Examiner over the decades.

On 18 October 1933, the Cork Examiner notes that congratulations were given by the Company to young actor Jack Curran. Jack was raised to the Priesthood in Rome. He was the first Company member to be ordained. The Cork Examiner noted: “To the older members it seemed a very short time ago since Jack Curran, as a little boy, struggled with difficulties.  Overcoming these difficulties he was able to play Hamlet with distinction at the Cork Opera House”.

On 26 March 1938, reference is given in the Cork Examiner that another popular actor of the Cork Shakespearean Company Henry A MacCarthy, had been appointed as Ireland’s representative on the Advisory Committee on Social Questions at the League of Nations. Henry came from a well-known Cork family, being the son of Mr Charles MacCarthy, sanitary engineer with Cork Corporation.

Henry MacCarthy qualified for the bar and was called in 1916. He had a flourishing practice in Cork both in the days of the British Empire and later under the Irish Free State legal system. He also enjoyed many social activities in the city. Chief of these was his interest in the Cork Shakespearean company and one of the roles by which he was best remembered by Cork audiences was that of Christopher Sly in the prologue of the Taming of the Shrew.

Henry was noted to have been gifted with a very fine diction. He was appointed to teach elocution in the Cork School of Music. He had just given only two or three lessons when the news of his appointment as a district justice was received. He acted as a temporary district judge filling in for justices who are on holidays or otherwise unable to carry on. In this capacity he visited practically every court in the country. The appointment was made about 1931 and soon after Henry became permanent in the Dublin District Court where he was regarded as a kindly and popular gentleman. In Dublin Henry took part in the Dublin Shakespeare Society for many years and also in several drama festivals in the Dublin region.

Another key stalwart of the Company and who assisted Fr O’Flynn to keep the Cork Shakespearian Company on the road from the 1930s to the 1960s was Eileen Curran. She was involved with the company from the very beginning. She was a member of a well-known Cork family, her great grandfather, was Patrick Curran, a well-known baker. She was sister of Rev Bernard (Jack) Curran OP of St Mary’s, Cork, Mr Chris Curran who was a well-known stage, radio and TV actor, Mrs Seán Clayton, Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin, Miss Chrissie Curran, Cork, and Alfred Curran.

In the Cork Examiner across the 1940s advertisements showcase her giving elocution/ speech training at Skerry’s College on the16 South Mall. She was also a popular recitation artist at variety concerts across the city.

Eileen maintained the closest association with the Cork Shakespearean Company over the years and continued the great traditions set by its distinguished priest founder. She was also responsible for the annual musical productions in St Aloysius College on Sharman Crawford Street, where she taught elocution and singing.

On Eileen’s death on 9 April 1977 Mr Pearse Gunn, well-known Cork producer, who had been associated with Miss Curran for many years noted to the Evening Echo that Eileen’s contribution to the Cork Shakespearian Company was monumental. He noted: “The Company would not have survived after the death of Fr O’Flynn, but for her work and dedication. Fr O’Flynn left the Loft to Eileen Curran and by that I mean he intended that she should carry on the work he started. He had a very distinct method and style, and none could interpret its greatness better than Eileen who was a founder member and an actress of no mean ability”.

Another core supporter was Gus Healy. He was chairman and a founder member of the Cork Shakespearean company. Many actors who performed at the Loft were initiated into the arts of acting through his efforts. Gus played the leading role in many Shakespeare plays.

The Dictionary of Irish Biography denotes that Gus was born on 20 May 1904 on Castle Road, Blackrock, Gus was the second of two sons of Timothy Healy, collector for the Cork Gas Company, from Cork, and his wife, Pauline Groegor, from Germany. Gus was educated at the North Mon. When he left school he worked for a year in a saddlery business on Leitrim Street, Cork. He then went onto train as a dental assistant under Isa Scher at St Patrick’s Hill. By 1938 Gus had opened his own business in Grand Parade, Cork.

In 1943, Gus ran a successful campaign as an independent Councillor candidate in the Local Elections for Cork Corporation. In 1948 he joined Fianna Fáil. In February 1957, he was elected to Dáil Éireann. He married Rita McGrath on 4 February 1957 and they lived at the View, Montenotte, Cork and later at Church Road, Blackrock.

Gus lost his Dáil seat in 1961 but served in Seanad Éireann for the following four years. He was re-elected to Dáil Éireann in 1965 and remained a Deputy until he retired in 1977. The Dictionary of Irish Biography recalls he held a number of chairmanship positions in Dail Eireann committees.

Gus was twice Lord Mayor of Cork in 1965-6 and 1974-5. As part of his Corporation work, he held a number of positions. The Dictionary of Irish Biography recalls; “Mr Healy was a member of Southern Health Board and the City of Cork VEC. He was chairman of the Cork Film Festival, which also included the Cork International Choral Festival, and a director of Cork Opera House. He was chairman of the Cork Tóstal council from its inception in 1954, chairman of the former Cork advisory committee and regional director of the Ivernia Regional Tourist Company”.

The Dictionary of Irish Biography also outlines that Gus took a prominent and active part in sport in Cork. He was a teacher of swimming with long ties with Sunday’s Well Swimming Club. The Gus Healy swimming pool in Douglas is named in his honour. He became president of the Irish Amateur Swimming Association in 1943 and later President of the Munster branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union. He was president of the Aloysius Camogie Club, Cork for over thirty years. A director of the National Association for Cerebral Palsy, Gus was also chairman of its local branch, the Cork Spastic Clinic and of the Cork branch of the Irish Red Cross.

To be continued…

Caption:

1290a. Front cover of 1930 programme for Cork Shakespearean Company (source: Cork City Library).

The always most awaited results of the annual Discover Cork: Schools’ Heritage Project.

Thanks to all students who entered a project.

It’s year 23 of the Project with 30 City schools, 800 students, over 200 projects submitted, hours and hours of entertaining reading and shortlisting, and one jury who had to make difficult decisions on who should win.

But the Project at its heart remains an opportunity to explore Cork’s history and to be creative in the telling of its stories, and to build a sense of pride in our City.

My thanks to the Heritage Office of Cork City Council for their ongoing financial support for the project and to the Old Cork Waterworks Experience for hosting the projects, whilst reading and judging is ongoing.

Read the 2025 results here: http://corkheritage.ie/?page_id=10008

The proposed development comprises:

• The construction of a new part 3-storey/part 2-storey/part single -storey residential building comprising four number own door access residential units, including two number accessible 2-bed ground floor units, one number 2-bed first floor unit and one number 3-bed duplex unit on the first and second floor.
• The demolition and reconfiguration of the existing front wall.
• All ancillary site works, and signage as outlined in the plans and particulars

More detailed information and plans can be found at www.consult.corkcity.ie

Submissions and observations can be sent to Mark Birch, Acting Programme Manager, Housing Directorate, Cork City Council, City Hall.

The closing date for submissions and observations is Monday 28 April 2025 at 4pm.

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 30 January 2025

Making an Irish Free State City – Pursuing the Beautiful in Drama

From 1927 to 1932 Fr O’Flynn and his Cork Shakespearean Company were a highlight of the annual programme at Cork Opera House. Over the six week long programmes, eighteen different Shakespearean plays were presented. The time and effort into rehearsals and financial investment into costumes and venue hire were high.

Despite the challenges the Company remained steadfast in its ideals of Irish culture as something that should be supported to grow and open to all citizens to engage with. For example, in a 1930 season Programme for Cork Opera House, Fr O’Flynn condemned the censorship of the Irish government by using the metaphor that more lights need to be lit for culture more than establishing darkness in Irish culture. It was a nod to the State’s first Censorship of Publications Act of 1929; “To put out the darkness strike a light. Better for a nation’s organisations to establish Culture than organisations to prevent what is degrading. Vigilance Committees and censors and uproar in this Country show that the Irish people’s minds are idle. As with the individual, its government (the will) takes care to flood the soul with light when darkness would possess it, so with the nation, the Government should consider the negative goodness of prohibitive legislation worthless as compared with striking the light of Culture”.

In the late November 1931 Cork Opera House week long season, one of the most entertaining of all the Shakespearean comedies – King Henry IV, Part 1 – was performed. The proceeds that the show made were handed over to the Society of St Vincent do Paul as an offering to help in the noble work of the Society for the “relief of distress and want in the city”.

The Cork Examiner on 27 November 1931 remarked that the Cork Shakespearean Company’s version of the play was growing in its comedy and story-telling; “The company have never exceeded the standard of perfection shown in their previous performances of this play, and consequently the rich humour will be fully reproduced, as will also the nobility of more than one great figure. The character of Falstaff is outstanding in classical literature, and even now his wit and nimbleness of tongue can delight more thoroughly than many a famous cinema comedian. It is a play that well merits study, and nobody, who goes to it will have the slightest ground for regretting his choice”.

The November 1931 season concluded with The Merry Wives of Windsor. The Evening Echo on 30 November 1931 details that the Saturday matinee provided an additional angle to the work of the Cork Shakespearean Company. On the Saturday afternoon they presented a very varied and thoroughly Gaelic programme, which drew on everything from the poetry of Pádraig Pearse to presenting pieces from Irish playwrights.

The Evening Echo continues to praise the several productions of the 1931 week especially in the face of growing cultural trends such as cinemas. The editorial remarked: “This group of amateurs in the city continue to pursue an art that has everything to commend it. Had they been operative in a previous generation their work would have been ever so much easier, and encouragement, far more than the present day quantify, would have been bestowed on them. All the greater, then, is their triumph, when, in face of all the opposing forces of the modern types of entertainment. They are still able to carry on and can find audiences big enough to enable them to pay their way”.

At the conclusion of the performance on the Saturday night Mr Henry McCarthy, on behalf of the Company, thanked those present for their kind patronage throughout the week. He outlined that the patronage had enabled them to do more, than clear their expenses, and, although they did not gauge the measure of their success by the box-office receipts, it was always encouraging to receive such support. He remarked that their work on this occasion had been a labour of love, and if they had helped or given real enjoyment to a few they were satisfied with the outcome of their efforts. Mr McCarthy remarked that if the country was to continue on prosperous lines the Irish must support, everything produced at home – everything both intellectual and material; “We look confidently for support from the citizen. Our culture and civilisation are threatened on every side, and we must do our best to retain them in Ireland. To regain our Christianity we must begin at home on cultural lines”.

At the end of the 1932 season in Cork Opera House. Fr O’Flynn spoke himself from the stage to the audience. He reiterated the motto of the Cork Shakespearean Company “An Áilneacht in Uachtar”, which he translated as ‘pursue the beautiful’. He referred to a time in the world when people found life and happiness in seeking and contemplating the beautiful. He related that for centuries now the world looked for happiness in making money. He called it the “practical way”; “This practical way has caused the present state of life; it has poured the sweet milk of concord into hell. The company knew that the so-called practical way spelled decadence. Hence, they seek and appreciate appreciation and not the making of money. They could easily make money by playing the things of plots and thrills that nowadays fill the boxes. Or they could visit Liverpool or Manchester, get a good Press, and return to be followed. They preferred the way they have chosen: the way of hard work on their part, and the approval or disapproval of those who come to hear them”.

To be continued…

Caption:

1289a. Front cover of Cork Shakespearean Company programme, 1928 (source: Cork City Library).

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 23 January 2025

Making an Irish Free State City – Fr O’Flynn & the Cork Opera House Week

In early May 1927 Fr O Flynn rented Cork Opera House and staged a week-long season of six Shakespearean plays. Large scale financial investment was made and a large effort was made to assemble daily audiences. There were six evening performances and one matinee performance. The plays Richard II, Twelfth Night, Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, Othello and Richard III were all performed by players who played different characters in these plays.

The worst fears of the Cork Shakespearean Company were seen on the first night. Richard II was played before an attentive audience, but not as large the Company wished for. The big influence on this was the fine weather that Corkonians began to enjoy that week. The Cork Examiner on the following day (on 3 May) praised the production; “The public are still apt to look with suspicion on what is slightingly referred to as ‘local talent’, but even the most hardened Philistine, must be converted by the wonderfully fine work of this enterprising society. When an unfamiliar historical play such as Richard II can be staged so well that it evokes enthusiastic applause, as it did last night, the public can he assured of a faultless rendering of the more popular Shakespearean plays which will be seen during the week…Taken all round, the production would be considered highly creditable even for a professional company.

On Tuesday 3 May, Twelfth Night was performed. The news report in the Cork Examiner, the day after, reported that the audience enjoyed the performance; “The reception, which a representative and discriminating audience gave to Twelfth Night, shows that a lighter comedy capably produced will not only please, but captivate a public. Of course, much depends upon the players, and how they can enter into the spirit of the piece…Last night’s performance was a treat for all who love Shakespeare. There was not a dull moment from start to finish. The play went with a swing, and the audience were not slow to appreciate the fact that they were listening to artists who had clearly given thoughtful preparation to the work and many of whom could hold their own against recognised professionals”.

On Wednesday, 4 May for Hamlet a very large crowd of school children, boys and girls, occupied the gallery of Cork Opera House and remained chatting throughout the performance. The following day, the Cork Examiner praised the resilience the actors who continued to perform through much noise; “The highest compliment that can be paid to the Cork Shakespearean Company is that last night they gave an excellent interpretation of Hamlet under conditions that at times would have been regard as intolerable by the most seasoned professional touring company. A very large crowd of school children, boys and girls, occupied the gallery, a circumstance in itself highly satisfactory as evidence of the interest in classical drama aroused by the influence of their teacher or those who prescribe books for examinations. But the conduct of the youthful galleryites last night was such as to give one the impression that a little more attention should be given to the teaching of manners in the school or the homes”.

Fr O’Flynn wrote to the Cork Examiner and defended the young people’s chattering; “They came to see the ghost. And the pictures have trained them to express themselves aloud. They aro not to blame. They have not had the stage that trained the older generation. We felt inclined to relieve the congestion in the gallery by filling the boxes with these little spiritual ones who came to see a ghost. These are the ones who in after years fill boxes to enjoy true art. We forgive them heartily”.

On Friday 6 May the Company performed their Othello. The play was broadcast from the stage on local radio through the Cork Broadcasting Service.

If 1927 was a major project, the ambition for 1928 far exceeded it. In one week in November 1928, Fr O’Flynn and the Cork Shakespearean Company staged six Shakespearean plays across six evenings and two matinees. They staged Hamlet (Monday evening), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Tuesday evening and Wednesday matinee), Much Ado About Nothing (Wednesday evening and Saturday matinee), As You Like It (Thursday evening), Hamlet (Friday), The Taming of the Shrew (Saturday evening).  Some of the young actors took part in every one of the eight performances during that week in 1928.

In a 1928 programme note, Fr O’Flynn wrote about a labour of love for Shakespeare; “From our Loft in Musgrave Place we bring eight or works of art – our reason for so many is just love for work, and that the stars in one play may be given the part of a soldier, servant or noises of in some other to advance the aspiring stars a little further on their way. No company in the world, for pay, would undertake a week like this; with us it is a pleasure, a labour of love”.

The Committee of the Cork Shakespearean Company in 1928 comprised Fr O’Flynn, President; Mr Gus Healy, Chairman, Mr M McCarthy, Honorary Secretary; Mr Tom Vesey, Treasurer; Mr L O’Connell, Mr Ted Healy, Stage Manager, Misses Eileen Curran, Rita Coughlan and P Murphy.

From 1927 to 1932. Fr O’Flynn’s Shakespearean seasons were a highlight of the year’s programme at the Opera House. For the young actors the rehearsals were very time-consuming and made heavy demands on their loves. In addition, at performances audience numbers fluctuated, but media responses were positive and supportive. The change to later times of year for performances such as November instead of May created more of an audience attendance as well.

Caption:

1288a. Cork Shakespearean Programme flyer for Cork Opera House, November 1928 (source: Cork City Library).