Athy's Social Club Players

Last week I wrote of the many vacant, sometimes derelict shop premises on Athy’s main streets and questioned why Kildare County Council had not put in place some form of financial incentives such as a rates or property tax abatement scheme to encourage the occupation and use of vacant premises. I was delighted to read in the same newspaper an advertisement by Kildare County Council announcing a Commercial Rates Incentive Grants Scheme whereby a business premises vacant for at least two years can get a three-year grant to encourage the reoccupation of a vacant premises. This is a good start to the planned regeneration of Athy’s main street, but only if the Enterprise Department of the same Council works hand in hand with prospective independent shop owners who are interested in re-occupying existing vacant premises. My article last week commenced with the question if one could remember the differences of life in Athy in the 1950s and today. It was during the course of my own memory recall that I remembered the town’s Social Club Players. They were a dramatic group based in the Social Club in St. John’s Lane. My first memory of the Social Club Players stems from a performance in the Town Hall to which I was brought by my brother Jack in February 1953 when I was not yet 11 years old. I cannot remember any details of the play. All I can recall after 72 years was where we were sitting, approximately halfway down the hall on the right hand side. The subsequent press report on the play ‘The Barretts of Wimpole Street’ described it as ‘the Society’s most ambitious production to date.’ Veteran actors such as Liam Ryan, Tadhg Brennan, Tommy Walsh, Ken Reynolds, Tom Fox, Florrie Lawler, May Fenelon and Nellie Fox impressed the newspaper reporter immensely in their various roles. The Social Club Players’ first production, so far as I am aware, was ‘Cupboard Love’, performed in the Town Hall in April 1943. I have originals or copies of 16 programmes of plays put on by the Social Club Players between 1943 and 1959. How many programs I am missing I cannot say, but if there is anyone out there who has Social Club Players programmes I would welcome the opportunity of getting photocopies of same. Looking through the programmes I have, it is sad to think that all of the men and women who performed on the local stage so many years ago are no longer with us. Jo Lawler, May Fenelon, Claire Moore, Maureen Walsh, Florrie Lawler, Christy Burke, Nellie Fox, Frances Fenelon, Kitty McLaughlin, May Ward and Betty May were the actresses who participated in several of the Society’s productions over the years. The actors included Liam Ryan, Tadhg Brennan, Pat Mulhall, Ken Reynolds, D.S. Walsh, Freddie Moore, Tommy Walsh, Tommy Fleming, Johnny Mee, Tommy Doyle, Joe Martin, John Dolan, James O’Doherty, Tom Fox, Fergus Hayden and Patsy O’Neill. These were the men and women who gave of their time and talents to entertain their fellow community members over a 16-year period. Their legacy was captured in programmes and photographs of cast members of various plays in which they participated. The plays included ‘Cupboard Love’ (April 1943), ‘Paul Twyning’ (December 1943), ‘Look at the Heffernans’ (March 1945), ‘The Far Off Hills’ (April 1947), ‘They got what they wanted’ (1948), ‘The Righteous are Bold’ (1949), ‘The White Steed’ (April 1950), ‘The White Headed Boy’ (January 1951), ‘The Shop at Sly Corner’ (1952), ‘The Barretts of Wimpole Street’ (February 1953), ‘The Far Off Hills’ (1954), ‘The Righteous are Bold’ (1954) , ‘The Clock Ticks Dusk’ (1955), ‘Twenty Years Awooing’ (1955-’56), ‘The Devil came from Dublin’ (1956), ‘My Wife’s Family’ (1956), ‘The Devil came from Dublin’ (November 1956), ‘Mungo’s Mansion’ (March 1958), ‘The Turn of the Wheel’ (February 1959). I was intrigued to come across a copy of the Society’s accounts for ‘Look at the Heffernans’ which was performed in the Town Hall in March 1945. The sum of thirteen shillings and six pence was paid to John Eaton for ‘bill posting and bell’. This was a time when local events and shows were publicised by the local bell man who walked through the main streets ringing a bell and announcing, as in this case, the upcoming performance of the Society’s play. I have listed the actors and actresses of the Social Club Players so that any future local historian/researcher can easily access what I hope can be regarded as a local archive devoted to the forgotten people of Athy. For the same reason I set out the plays which the Social Club Players put on in the Town Hall insofar as I can verify them between 1943 and 1959. I wonder if there could be a revival of the theatrical tradition of the past which was once such an important part of the social fabric of Athy? The recent death of Kieran Hickey brought back memories of over sixty years ago when I joined Kildare County Council as a clerical officer. On joining the Council I learned that Kieran and Joe Gavin, both of whom were clerical officers like myself, were attending the final year of a three year B. Comm. degree course at nighttime in U.C.D. Motivated by what they were doing I attended the same degree course the following year with the benefit of a ‘lift to Dublin’ after work and bussing to the Naas Road to ‘thumb’ a lift back to Naas after the lectures. My brother Jack, who was also a clerical officer in Kildare County Council at the time, on seeing my involvement with U.C.D. decided to study for various diplomas. The studies stood Joe, Kieran and my brother Jack in good stead as all ended up at the top of their professions, Joe Gavin as County Manager in Monaghan, Jack Taaffe as County Manager in Westmeath and Kieran Hickey as C.E.O. of the Eastern Health Board. Many of the people I worked with in Kildare County Council over five years in the 1960s are now dead. Like the members of Athy Social Club Players they are the forgotten people of an earlier generation whose memories deserve remembrance by later generations.

Photo Social Club Players

A few weeks ago I made a brief reference to the Social Club which many of you will remember was based in St. John’s Lane.  This week I reproduce a photograph taken in the Social Club featuring Dr. Noel Browne and Robert Browne.  Dr. Noel Browne was Minister for Health from February 1948 until April 1951 when he resigned over the Mother and Child Scheme.  Briscoe, the son of a Lithuanian Orthodox Jew was, like Browne, a member of the Dáil.  I believe the photograph was taken during Browne’s period as Minister for Health, but what was the occasion  which brought the Clann na Poblachta Minister and the Fianna Fáil T.D. to Athy’s Social Club I cannot say.  I’m sure there are many readers of the column who can identify the occasion as well as all those in the photograph.

I recognise John and Dolly Stafford, Paddy and Nora Dooley, M.G. Nolan, Andy Cleary, Paddy Timpson, Liam and Noreen Ryan but also see many other familiar faces to which I cannot put names.

I would like to hear from you if you can help identify all or any of those featured in this weeks photograph.

Social Club Players

A very welcome recent arrival by email from America were copies of a large number of programmes of plays put on by the Athy Social Club players between 1943 and 1959.  Many of you will remember the Social Club in St. John’s Lane where the Social Club Players were based.  The club house was originally built by the British Legion as an old comrade’s hall and passed out of their ownership in the mid 1930s. 

The Social Club provided facilities such as a snooker//billiards room, a cards room and a badminton court which was based in the hall which also doubled as a concert hall/theatre.  That hall alternated with the Town Hall as the venue for the plays put on by the Social Club Players.

The first programme I have is for a comedy by Bernard Duffy called ‘Cupboard Love’.   It was put on in the Town Hall on Easter Monday, 26^th April 1943 and the following day, with admission fees of 2/6, 1/6 and 1/=.  That programme was printed by ‘Printing Works Athy’.  I cannot say if this was the first play put on by the Athy Players and would welcome hearing from anyone who can give me any information on this matter.

The characters in that play were played by Liam Ryan, Bella Blanchfield, Florrie Lawler, Tadgh Brennan, Mollie Moore, Paddy Flynn, Rosaleen Timmons, Ger Moriarty and D.S. Walsh.  The director was local curate, Fr. Morgan Crowe.

Many of the names mentioned will still be remembered today but I could not recall Bella Blanchfield, Paddy Flynn or Rosaleen Timmons and so made enquiries.  Bella lived in Leinster Street in the house later bought by Ger Moriarty, while Paddy Flynn was from Skerries and Rosaleen Timmons, who was a sister of Kevin Timmons, lived in St. Patrick’s Avenue.  Two weeks ago while attending a conference in Kilmallock, Co. Limerick I had the pleasure of meeting a grandson of D.S. Walsh or ‘Daney’ as he was known.  D.S. had a shop premises at the corner of Leinster Street and Chapel Lane and appeared in several plays put on by the Social Club Players in the late 1940s with his son Tommy.  To complete the family picture Nora McKenna who was later to marry Tommy Walsh appeared in the 1957 Social Club production of ‘The Devil from Dublin’. 

Throughout the lifespan of the Social Club Players many individuals were involved including Liam Ryan, Tadgh Brennan, Florrie Lawler, Pat Mulhall, Jo Lawler and Ger Moriarty.  Other actors came and went over the years, their names recorded on faded programmes and in some cases unrecognised after a period of 50 years or more.  Lelia Lewis played in that other 1943 play by the Social Club Players called ‘Paul Twyning’.  Does anyone know who Lelia was, or Cathal Kennedy who featured in the 1948 play ‘They Got What They Wanted’?  What of Michael Walsh who played in the 1951 production of ‘The Whiteheaded Boy’ or Michael Fitzpatrick who featured in ‘Twenty Years a-Wooing’ produced in 1955?

In 1959 ‘The Turn of the Wheel’ by local playwright Mary D. Mullan was put on in St. John’s Hall and included in that cast were Christine O’Donohoe and Jim Gardner, whose names are unfamiliar to me.  This may have been the last play put on by the Social Club Players.  Recently Len Hayden, formerly of St. Patrick’s Avenue, passed away and I see from the 1959 programme that she played the part of Kitty Ryan in ‘The Turn of the Wheel’.

The Social Club Players won the Capuchin Silver Cup for the best group in rural Ireland at the Fr. Mathew Feis in Dublin in 1949 for their production of ‘The Righteous are Bold’.  The cast included Liam Ryan, Freddie Moore, Ken Reynolds, May Fenelon, Jo Lawler, Joseph Martin, Tadgh Brennan, Tommy Walsh, Claire Moore and Eileen Darcy.  The producer of that play was the legendary Jack McGowran of the Abbey Theatre Dublin and the stage manager was Pat Mulhall.  A press report of the time noted ‘the inhabitants of Athy district are more and more convinced that there is not in the rural parts of the country an amateur group of equal talent.’

I would like to hear from anyone who remembers the Social Club Players or who can identify the forgotten actors I have mentioned.

I also have a number of programmes relating to different to Athy theatrical groups including Athy Teachers Drama Group, Athy Dramatic Society, the Athy Players and Athy’s Comedy Players.  The last named featured in some comedy sketches put on in the Town Hall in 1951 or thereabouts, while the Teachers Group put on ‘Professor Tim’ in the Parochial Hall (the former Social Club premises) in March 1963.  If you know anything about any of these groups I would welcome hearing from you.