Fifty years of drama in Doonbeg

FIFTY years ago, almost to the week, the first West Clare Drama Festival was held in Doonbeg Hall. Peering from a grainy, black and white photograph of the original committee are Murt McInerney, Johnny Igoe and Cissie McMahon.

Five decades later, the trio are still central to the smooth running of the annual festival, which starts on Saturday night in Doonbeg. The 2011 festival will run for 10 nights and will culminate on Tuesday, March 15 with a golden jubilee dinner in the 300-seater hall.
Although the first festival was held in March 1962, drama wasn’t unknown in Doonbeg. The hosting of plays in the hall can be traced to the 1930s, the decade in which the community centre was built.
“It was built in Fr McNamara’s time around 1934. It was a great place for dances but, of course, there was no electricity. They had a generator at the back to light the hall but a lot of the time it didn’t work so they had oil lamps. The same was true of the plays then later on. They were lit by oil lamps,” Murt McInerney, who is the festival director, said of the community centre, which was burned to the ground in 1958. Murt encouraged the then parish priest, Fr Kenny, to include a stage in the rebuilt hall.
The annual festival mushroomed from a meeting of the Doonbeg guild of Muintír na Tíre. The original six-person management committee comprised Micheál Aghas, Jack Downes, Joe Hurley, Murt McInerney, Tom O’Gorman and Fr Patrick Taffe.
The first festival cost €226.05 to run, while Traoloch Ó hAonghusa, who adjudicated in 1962, came at a cost of €34.48.
“We’ve fond memories of Traolach Ó hAonghusa. He was trained in the Cork School of Music and the Abbey School of Acting. He was a great actor, a great manager and a great, patient adjudicator,” Murt reminisced.
Johnny Igoe is the current committee chairman. While the drama was the main attraction in the early years, The Festival Club, which included a bar in the hall, didn’t exactly put off people either.
“I’ll tell you something, one of the best people we had coming to the festival was Bert (McMahon), the Lord have Mercy on him. Bert, Mickey Keane and a number of them couldn’t get drink over the village but The Festival Club was here,” Johnny laughed.
In the early years the facilities were basic but that didn’t hinder the on or off-stage action.
“We didn’t have running water at the time. The water came from a tank in the roof. That, of course, wasn’t potable so Georgie Comerford filled a creamery tank of spring water. That’s what we used for making tea and all the rest of it. Whereas the water for flushing the toilets came from the roof, it wouldn’t have been safe to drink,” Murt recalled.
“Things changed then and we got lovely facilities,” festival secretary, Cissie McMahon noted. The hall was refurbished in 1998 and now incorporates top-class stage lighting and seating for the audience.
The sing-songs, Murt said of the early years, were as memorable as the plays.
“What they enjoyed in those days, prior to the drink-driving laws, there were great sing-songs. We moved the bar then to Igoe’s. They also did the catering for the groups before hand. Of course, Mrs Igoe was famous for her hospitality.”
Mrs Igoe was, however, noted for the odd outburst.
“Take no notice and you’ll be well fed,” was Murt’s advice to visitors. “She was mighty. People still talk about Kitty and Seán,” he said of Mrs Igoe, who was Johnny’s aunt-in-law.
One of the actors who the trio recall most vividly is Mary Harvey of Torch Players, Limerick. She has since featured in Killinaskully, alongside Pat Shortt.
“She had a caravan over in Tommy Tubridy’s caravan park. She’s a great character,” Johnny said of Mary, who won the best actress award several times in Doonbeg.
“I remember her playing a drunk one night in Memory of Water,” Murt recalled. “She was so drunk that she was hanging onto the door coming in. To get that right is something else. In another part in it they were waking her mother. She was so out of it that she fell into the wardrobe. Perfect,” Murt smiles.
Groups who take the trouble to prepare for months and travel to Doonbeg from across Munster or Clare mostly want to win.
“You’d often see a lot of disappointment on stage with the results,” Cissy acknowledged.
“If we didn’t deserve to win, Murt would be very worried in case we won. I’ll say that much about him,” Johnny noted.
Murt himself said he enjoys his involvement but winning isn’t always a priority.
“I do it for fun. Some people get quite serious about it. I always maintain that if the audience isn’t enjoying what you’re doing, you’re wasting your time. Recently, the more serious plays seem to be the ones that groups go for. They think that if you do a comedy or a farce that you’re not going to win. I’m afraid that the adjudicators kind of reinforce that. You get the perception that comedy doesn’t win as often as drama or tragedy. That’s a pity really,” he reflected.
Ten years ago, the foot and mouth outbreak almost upset the West Clare Drama Festival’s unblemished record. After some negotiation though, it went ahead.
“We went to the agricultural people and they allowed us to run a festival with plays from within the county. We’re one of the few festivals who have run continuously for 50 years,” Murt observed.
All three point to parish-wide support in Doonbeg, which has contributed to keeping the festival alive year-on-year. However, Cissie said people from throughout West Clare regularly frequent Doonbeg Hall during festival time.
“We get tremendous support from the surrounding parishes, Kilkee, Carrigaholt, Kilrush, Cooraclare, Kilmihil. All of the surrounding parishes were great supporters of our festival down through the years,” she concluded, hopeful that there is plenty of drama to come in Doonbeg the 50th time out.