If Benjamin Franklin’s axiom assures us of the certainty of two things only—death and taxes—the Irish can add further to that list, and indeed link the two. For what was an Irish death without an Irish wake, and what was an Irish wake without an abundance of tobacco? And what were such proportions of consumption … Read more
In 1834 a new experiment in tobacco-growing was established by Sir Nugent Everard at Randalstown, Co. Meath. Such was the dedication of Everard to this experiment that he sent his son to America for several years to ‘learn the business’. In seeking approval for such cultivation, Everard had enlisted the support of such men as … Read more
The Theatre Royal’s short 27-year lifespan (it opened in 1935) is testimony to the rapid social change and revolution in entertainment that took place during the last century. The same site had played host to the ‘first’ Theatre Royal (burned down in 1880), the Leinster Hall (built in 1886) and the Theatre Royal Hippodrome (demolished in 1934).
The theatre had its own art department, which in the 1940s was under the direction of the Limerick painter Fergus O’Ryan. O’Ryan was joined in the early ’40s by a teenage assistant, James Mahon. The theatre’s scene dock and art department had absorbed the old premises of the Freeman’s Journal in Townshend Street. Set design, … Read more
Of the Theatre Royal’s organ-players (Alban Chambers, Gordon Spicer, Norman Metcalfe and Tommy Dando), Norman Metcalfe’s career spanned a trajectory from church organ to cine-variety to television, where he worked on the RTÉ quiz show Quicksilver. The prototype for that quiz, Double or Nothing, was first staged at the Theatre Royal in 1942. The Englishman … Read more