Marquee swings back into action

ON Sunday, June 3, Kilmurry McMahon will stage the parish’s first marquee in approximately 30 years. The first marquee was staged in 1963 and it realised a profit of £874, 15 shillings and nine pence. The expenditure was £581, six shillings and three and a half pence.

 

This year’s marquee will be held on the grounds of Kilmurry McMahon Community Centre, which is next to the original marquee venue in Shannon’s Field.

The marquee has been revived to help with fundraising for the development of a playground and multi-use games area in Labasheeda.

Planning permission has already been secured for the complex, which will be located in the Shannon Gaels

GAA Club car park. The committee has applied for Leader funding for the project, which will cost €140,000. A figure of €35,000 must be raised by the committee, which has already secured €11,000 through a series of events, including a fashion show.

The marquees in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s were organised by Shannon Gaels, Macra na Feirme and St Mary’s Athletic Club, who split the profits between them.

Tommy McCarthy, who has been synonymous with St Mary’s AC for more than half a century, clearly recalls the early days of the marquee in Kilmurry McMahon.

“It used to open Easter Sunday night because there were no dances allowed for the six weeks of Easter that time. People would be kind of starved for dancing,” he laughed.

Tommy knows of several cases where a man or woman met their now spouse at the marquee.

“Often you’d hear that someone met his wife at the marquee in Kilmurry,” he reminisced.

Some of the profits were occasionally shared with the parish, on whose behalf the parish priest was presented with a cut. However, one year the then parish priest was unhappy that the parish was left out when the profits were being shared and he fired a shot over the head of a couple he met in the vicinity of the church in Kilmurry McMahon. The gardaí later took the gun off the parish priest.

On June 3, Crystal Swing will pick up where acts like Mick Delahunty, Johnny McEvoy, Brendan Shine and The Mainliners left off.

“The idea for bringing back the marquee came at one of our fundraising meetings and it was felt that it would be a great idea, as many of us have heard great tales about the marquee in Kilmurry McMahon but had never attended one,” playground committee chairman David Neylon explained.

“We got in contact with Crystal Swing and they were available that weekend so we felt there would be no better band than them to have at the marquee. Reaction to the marquee has been great. People are ringing up looking for up to 10 tickets at a time. It brings back memories of the dances and I’ve even met a few married couples, who have said that they first met at the Kilmurry McMahon marquee,” he added.

David is hopeful that some lads will dip their heads into a bucket of Brylcreem and that a few retro-loving ladies might even sport beehive hair styles.

“Also, there’ll be priority parking for anyone who turns up in a vintage car on the night. You’d never know, a few people might even come on the high nellie,” he suggested. The marquee will include a licensed bar and tickets are available from committee members.

The marquee is one of several playground fundraising events planned for the June bank holiday weekend.

On Friday, June 1 a table quiz will be held at 9pm in The Hut bar, Knock, while a 10km run and walk will be held in Knock village from 6pm on Saturday, June 2. A fancy dress disco will be held in Casey’s bar, Labasheeda from 10pm that night.

A car boot sale will be held at Shannon Gaels GAA Club car park at 12noon on Sunday, June 3 and this will be followed by a family fun day at the GAA pitch from 1pm. Incorporated into the event will be a barbecue, field activities, a bouncy castle, a dog show and a duck race.

To round off the weekend, a children’s disco from 2pm to 4pm will be held on Bank Holiday Monday at Labasheeda Community Centre.

More information on any of the events can be obtained on www.adventureplayground.ie.