Photograph of Minch Norton / Asbestos Factory Outing to Navan / Review of 1953 Production Barretts of Wimpole Street

1961 was an important milestone in my life.  In January of that year I left Athy to work in Naas.  Nowadays the county town is just up the road, a short car distance away, but back 47 years ago it seemed as far away as Cavan town is today.  That same year two Daly brothers left their hometown of Athy, one having disposed of a business which his parents had established in Stanhope Street, the other closing the door on a butchering business which he had carried on from a small premises in Leinster Street.  Tom Daly’s shop in Stanhope Street, separated from Noonan’s pub by the curiously named ‘Garter Lane’ was where the Taaffes bought their daily ration of milk.  I remember Tom Daly quite well and can picture in my mind’s eye the thickset man who took over the business which had previously been operated by his father Laurence Daly.  Tom’s brother Joe was the butcher who in 1961 moved to Bray in County Wicklow.  I don’t remember Joe who at 17 years of age enlisted in the Irish Army during the second World War and while there became apprenticed to the butchering trade.  When he was demobbed at the end of the European hostilities Joe opened his own shop at No. 65 Leinster Street where he carried on business for approximately 12 years before migrating across the Wicklow Gap to the seaside town of Bray.  Joe passed away on 21^st March last at 82 years of age.  He had maintained contact with his home town over the years and as a keen sportsman followed the stumbling progress of the Lilywhites each year in the league and football championships.  Sportswise, one of Joe’s proudest moments came about when his greyhound ‘Cheeky Robin’ won through to the final of the Coursing Derby in 1960.

While the Daly brothers and a gawky red-haired youngster from Offaly Street were moving away from the familiar streets of Athy in 1961, a somewhat older but still relatively young man was busily planning on extending his ballroom empire to the South Kildare town.  Albert Reynolds was his name and although working full time for C.I.E. he still managed with his brother to build up a formidable array of dance venues around the country, including the aptly named Dreamland here in Athy. 

I think it was the summer of 1961 when Victor Sylvester and his orchestra featured on the opening night of Dreamland Ballroom.  I was there that night, having travelled from Naas courtesy of Carmel Fitzpatrick’s trusted Ford Prefect accompanied by several girls from Kildare County Council.  It was a great night, so unlike the dances previously attended in the Town Hall or the Social Club Hall in St. John’s Lane.  Dreamland was the real thing, what with a revolving crystal ball hanging from the ceiling casting it’s reflected light on the semi-dark interior of what was essentially a gentrified barn.  But it was a barn with a difference.  For that night, and am I right in believing that it was for that night only, a revolving stage was employed to glide Paddens Murphy’s Sorrento Band backstage as the London maestro Victor Sylvester and his men came into view playing the same tune as the departing local musicians.  I can’t ever remember the revolving stage being used again, but then of course it wasn’t needed as relief bands only came into vogue at the end of the showband era which came many years later.

I was reminded of Dreamland and the part it played in the lives of every local man and woman over 55 years of age when I heard of the Nostalgic Showband night planned for Wednesday, 7^th May.  The venue this time is to be the Carlton Abbey Hotel, but I am told the bands performing will recreate for us the atmosphere of the sixties and the exciting times we had in Dreamland and the other smaller venues which came on stream towards the end of the ballroom era.   Back in the 1960’s and the 1970’s almost every provincial Irish town had its band.  Musicians of an earlier era had been encouraged in their musicianship by the plethora of marching bands which were once a feature of Irish life.  The emergence of the showbands ushered in by the Clipper Carlton from Northern Ireland brought with it fresh outlets for young musicians.  Here in Athy, which had bands to rival the Mick Delahunty’s of this world in the Sorrento Band and the Stardust Band, young fellows were gravitating to guitar playing, and to a lesser extent to other musical instruments.  If Dreamland was showcasing the best of the Irish showbands of the time, many of the smaller venues in and around the town were offering their version of the then current music.  The Town Hall, the Parochial Hall in St. John’s Lane which was previously known as the Social Club, the Oasis in Meeting Lane and the Band Wagon in Offaly Street were just some of those local venues where aspiring local musicians played.

I can’t say which of the local bands emerged first but amongst them were the Adelaide Showband, the Albtros Band, Harry and the Escorts and The Spotlights.  Later still as the showband music scene waned and musical tastes broadened Athy had several new combinations including Woodbine, the Flint Hill Boys and Wordworm. 

The musical evolution which started with the showbands continues to this day and many of the current local musical groups have links extending back over the years.  It might perhaps be invidious to mention just some of those involved as inevitably someone worthy of mention might be unintentionally omitted.  Rather than doing so therefore may I simply pay a well earned tribute to all those local musicians and musical groups, all of whom have contributed so much to community enjoyment since Albert Reynolds and his brother first opened the doors of ‘our Dreamland’.

On Wednesday 7^th May the Carlton Abbey Hotel will host the Nostalgic Showband Night which is being organised by Robert Chanders and his colleagues to raise funds for the Irish Wheelchair Association in Teach Emmanuel.  That night many of the local bands of the past will come together for perhaps the last time to recreate our fading memories of a time when the showband was king.  Sadly one of the local musicians who entertained us for many years and who was an original member of the Adelaide Showband is now wheelchair bound and availing of the excellent services provided at Teach Emmanuel in the grounds of St. Vincent’s Hospital.  Support for Teach Emmanuel and the Irish Wheelchair Association is very important and the forthcoming showband night on 7^th May will give all of us an opportunity to give that support, while reliving the romantic nights of yesteryear enjoyed in Dreamland Ballroom and elsewhere.

On Tuesday 29^th April in Trinity College Dublin the memoirs of Professor Bill Watts will be launched.  Born in Barrack Yard, Athy from where he attended the local Model School, Bill later became Provost of Trinity College Dublin.  The local Council graciously gave a civic reception for the former Provost a few years ago which was attended by many of his former school pals and family friends.  I know that the Town Fathers gesture was greatly appreciated by Bill and his family and the forthcoming memoirs which will be launched by the poet Brendan Kenneally has, I believe, a chapter devoted to the Watts family’s time in Athy.  It’s a book which will surely be of interest to readers in Athy. 

Finally, anyone wishing to contact me in relation to these articles can do so by logging on to www.athyeyeonthepast.blogspot.com.  The Eye on the Past articles appear on that blog and as always I would welcome hearing from anyone in a position to help me better understand and interpret the ever unfolding story of our historic town and it’s people.

Eye on the Past 727

The first play I ever saw was “The Barretts of Wimpole Street”. I was eleven years of age when my eldest brother Jack brought me to the Town Hall to see the Social Club Players in Rudy Bestier's classic. What is now the main library room was then the local theatre cum dance hall and while the stage presentation of 53 years ago is almost lost to me I can still recall, for whatever reason, the appearance on stage of May Fenelon. I can't recall any of the other players who that night took part in the play, the action for which was centered on Elizabeth Barretts bed sitting room at 50 Wimpole Street in London.

I was reminded of this when on Thursday night last I slipped in, somewhat late I have to admit, to watch the cast of “My Father's Life” perform in John MacKenna's latest work. The performance was in the exhibition room next door to the main library room and of necessity because of the absence of an elevated stage the play was enacted in the round.

John MacKenna, one of the founders of the Mend & Makedo Theatre Company, has long championed for a theatre/arts centre for Athy and more than anyone else he has kept alive the theatrical flame in the town of Athy which was once a vibrant centre for the dramatic arts. The Social Club Players of the 1950's and early 1960's were the most successful successors to a long line of amateur theatrical companies which graced the stage in this part of Kildare over many decades. What was important for the success of these groups is that they had a stage on which to perform. In earlier years the Comrades Hall in St. John's Lane vied with the Town Hall as a venue for amateur theatrics, and I remember both venues being used at different times by the Social Club Players. Today Athy does not have a theatre, big, small or otherwise and the public spaces available for cultural events in the Heritage Centre or the exhibition room of the Town Hall are not so suitable for dramatic productions.

Despite this the Mend & Makedo production of “My Father's Life” was a first rate performance which drew a remarkably warm response from a small but receptive audience last Thursday. I was particularly struck by the performance of Sarah Maher, a young actress who brought a wholesome sweetness to her portrayal of the daughter of the English peasant poet, John Clare. She was particularly good when interacting with the other players, her measured assurance of movement, expression and voice belying her relatively short experience as a stage actress. She was less convincing when adopting the narrative role, especially in the first part of the play. The conversational tone she adopted at times seemed hurried and perhaps too casual, but as the play progressed this improved so that by the plays end she had the audience enthralled. A good performance, indeed an excellent performance by a young girl whom I believe has a great future in theatre. As usual I can't give a compliment without a little gripe and it is this. Her last line as she left the stage I felt was unusually flat.

Noel Lambe was good in the role which was particularly suited for him. His performance relied more on visual expression of the writer's intentions rather than a recital of lines and for this Noel was ideal. Strangely I thought that the author of the play gave a performance which was not one of his best. I have seen John in all his plays going back almost 25 years and he has never failed to excel in the many challenging roles he has undertaken in the past. The Northamptonshire accent he adopted for his role of John Clare was by and large maintained through the play at the level which was credible, but somehow or other his portrayal of the mad poet did not quite come off. The tortured visage of an institutionalised lunatic could not be visualised as I looked at the face of the man I know so well. It was a good performance, but not a great one. The reason I think lay in the difficulties presented by the physicality of the actor playing the part of a man who spent so many years in a lunatic asylum. It's possible that the fault may not be the actors but rather my own for retaining a visual representation of how I believed an early 19th century English asylum inmate would look.

All round it was a fine performance by the Mend & Makedo players in an original play by one of our finest writers. John MacKenna's literary output is impressive and in November his new book “Things you Should Know” will be published. I gather the book will be launched in the Town Hall on Saturday, 4th November by radio and T.V. personality Derek Mooney, but more about that nearer the event. In the meantime you should try and see “My Father's Life” which is being toured throughout Leinster over the next few weeks.

Earlier on Thursday I travelled to Dublin for the launch of Zolton Zinn Collis' book “Final Witness – My Journey from the Holocaust to Ireland”. Zolton featured in an Eye on the Past I wrote some years ago and in the meantime he has been one of those responsible for organising the Holocaust Memorial Day which is held in January each year. Intended to cherish the memory of all the victims of the Nazi Holocaust the Memorial service organised in association with the Department of Justice and Dublin City Council serves as a reminder of the dangers of racism and seeks to provide lessons from the past that are relevant today. Zolton has for many years gone from school to school talking to young people about the tragic defining episode of the 20th century in which he lost so many members of his own family. His is a sad story but one he says that must be remembered and never forgotten. With the publication of his book the story will now be available to a wider audience. It is a story with which we should make ourselves familiar if we are ever to aspire to freeing ourselves of the evils of prejudice, and accept the part we have to play in fighting racism and other forms of discrimination.

The book launch took place in Dubrays book shop in Grafton Street and the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, on a busy political day took time out to perform the launch. It was nice to see many from Athy who took the trouble to travel to Dublin to support Zolton and those of you who did not have that opportunity will be pleased to know that Zolton will give a talk in the Town Hall in the near future. Further details will be given in this column. In the meantime the book is on sale at €13.99 and I would recommend it as an important testament of a courageous man.

I finish this article with a few lines from a poem written by John Clare in his latter years. They are the words of a simple countryman, the son of a labourer who himself worked as a farm labourer, whose tombstone at Helpston which I visited a few years ago bears the epitaph “A poet is born not made”.

“I lost the love of Heaven above
I spurned the lust of Earth below,
I felt the sweets of fancied love
And Hell itself my only foe.

I lost Earth's joys, but felt the glow
Of Heaven's fame abound in me
Till loveliness and I did grow
The bard of Immortality.”