Remembering 'Big Jack'

The recent passing of the former Irish football team manager, Jack Charlton, has prompted an outpouring of memories and tributes from many who fondly remember 'Big Jack'. 

In the archive of the Galway International Arts Festival is this press cutting from the Galway City Tribune with an image of a sculpture of none other than Jack Charlton. The sculpture was made from discarded oil drums by Galway city motor mechanics Gay and Patsy Farrell. It was placed outside the Kenny Art Gallery, then located in Middle Abbey Street during the Heroes and Heroines exhibition in conjunction with the 1994 Galway Arts Festival. Ireland was in the grip of World Cup fever in the summer of 1994, as well as Arts Festival fever at this time, so it is no wonder ‘Big Jack’ made an appearance on the streets of Galway that summer. 

A Creative Collision from the Beginning - The Galway (International) Arts Festival Archive

At the half-way point in this year's Galway International Arts Festival, it is a good time to catch a breath after what has been such a packed week of the festival. This year being the first 'International' Galway Arts Festival (though of course it always was International!) it is a good opportunity to open up the archive of the Galway Arts Festival and look back at some of the hits and big events from over the years.

We are proud to hold the archive of the Galway Arts Festival here at the James Hardiman Library. It is a rich resource of history, great memories, major names and acts from all spectrum of the Arts and a record of just how the Arts Festival has grown and developed over the years, where today it stands as one of the great international arts festivals.

Here we open up some of the archives to see just how strong the programming was from its early years in the 1980s. Theatre names such as Druid of course stand out, along with Footsbarn Theatre Company and also a version of Waiting for Godot by Jim Sheridan . Literary names are full of heavy-hitters like John McGahern, Seamus Heaney, Thomas Kilroy and Paul Durcan to name a few. Art exhibitions from Robert Ballagh, Brian Boske, Patricia Burke-Brogan and others filled the visual art programme. Music from Padraig O'Carra, De Dannan, Doloros Keane, again to just but a few, were among the musical acts.

We hope you enjoy just a few highlights from the Galway Arts Festival Archive. The Archive catalogue can be viewed in full here and any queries please be in touch! Email - library@nuigalway.ie

Starring Role for First Galway Film Fleadh in 1989

With the Galway Film Fleadh barely over and the Galway Arts Festival now is full swing around the city, we hardly have a spare moment to look back through our collections here in NUIG. While working on the Galway Arts Festival Archive I have come across and catalogued a small but really interesting amount of material from the Galway Film Fleadh. Of particular interest are these items: a press release and invitation to the very first screening in the very first Galway Film Fleah. The film was Venus Peter and starred Ray McNally. This was incidentally McNally’s last film before he died. Venus Peter, set in the Orkney Islands was directed by Ian Seller and produced by Christopher Young. Other cast members include Sinead Cusack and Peter Caffrey.

The invitation pictured was to attend the opening night screening of Venus Peter at the Claddagh Place cinema, Galway on July 19, 1989. 

Press release from First Galway Film Fleadh

Invitation to the opening screening of Venus Peter

For more information on these items or on the archive of the Galway Arts Festival and its material relating to the Galway Film Fleadh please contact archivist barry.houlihan[at]nuigalway.ie

The Cripple of Inismaan

The rich and dark comedy of Martin McDonagh’s the Cripple of Inismaan has been touring coast to coast across America as part of the ‘Imagine Ireland’ programme throughout the first half of 2011. An award winning co-production between Druid Theatre Company and Atlantic Theatre Company, the show has performed to nearly 100,000 people throughout this trans-Atlantic tour. Launching in Roscommon and tracing its way across the United States with stops in Boston, Michigan, Chicago, California and South Carolina, to name a few, before a trip to its spiritual home in Inis Maan for an emotional homecoming.

McDonagh has enjoyed a long association with Druid. The rise of McDonagh is well documented in then Druid Theatre Company Archive, also held here in NUI Galway. McDonagh’s writing has created some of the best loved plays and performances by Druid of recent years. The visceral, beautiful and poetic language that McDonagh creates and is spoken between his islanders has throwbacks to the best of Synge but also is uniquely his own. The archive of Druid Theatre Company holds records such as invitations to teh opening night of the 1998 production of The Cripple at the Town Hall Theatre, Galway, and also many photographs taken during rehearsal and full performance of this production.

Dearbhla Molloy as Eileen (1997)

Now that the tour of the co-production by Druid and Atlantic Theatre Company has just finished its massively successful run, it is interesting to look at other productions of The Cripple. The archive of the Galway Arts Festival contains wonderful photographs (above and below) from the Royal National Theatre’s (U.K.) production of The Cripple of Inismaan which was a highlight event during the 1997 Galway Arts Festival. Directed by Nicholas Hytner and designed by Bob Crowley, the production files contain black and white photographs of the production, while the press files contain numerous local and national press reviews and features on The Cripple. The play was staged at the Town Hall Theatre Galway from 22 Jul to 2 August 1997.

Ray McBride as Johnnypateen (1997)

For more on the production history of The Cripple of Inismaan please see the archives of Druid Theatre Company and the Galway Arts Festival held at NUI Galway James Hardiman Library: http://www.library.nuigalway.ie/collections/archives/ or contact archivist barry.houlihan[at]nuigalway.ie

Cillian Murphy returns to the Galway Arts Festival

The mouth-watering line-up for this year’s Galway Arts Festival has just been announced. Among the numerous highlights is the production of Enda Walsh’s 1999 play Misterman which stars Cillian Murphy in the starring role of this one-man play. Misterman was premiered by Corcadora Theatre Company in 1999 at the Granary Theatre in Cork. This production saw Enda Walsh himself take the starring role and was directed by Pat Kiernan.

Cillian Murphy makes his return to collaboration with Enda Walsh for the first time since 1996 when he starred in Walsh’s Discopigs which was also made into a movie. The very successful stage version of Discopigs was a highlight of the 1997 Galway Arts Festival and starred Cillian Murphy and acclaimed actress Eileen Walsh in the leading roles. Murphy has seen his stock constantly rise since his early appearances at the Galway Arts Festival. Major Hollywood roles in the likes of Batman Begins and Inception as well as in the Palm d’Or winning film The Wins That Shakes the Barley directed by Ken Loach and depicting struggle and conflict in Ireland during the War of Independence and Civil War Ireland. Eileen Walsh has achieved huge notoriety and critical acclaim in her own right which strong turns in film such as the Magdalene Sisters and as Lady Macbeth on the Abbey Stage and in Medea in the 2010 Dublin Theatre Festival.

The archive of Galway Arts Festival holds a single photograph from the production of Discopigs at the 1997 Festival and shows Murphy alongside Walsh. It is a great photograph and a timely reminder of past collaboration between Cillian Murphy and Enda Walsh at the Galway Arts Festival.
The full archive of the Galway Arts Festival is currently being catalogued at the archives of the James Hardiman Library of NUI Galway. For any enquiries about material in the Galway Arts Festival archive please contact archivist Barry Houlihan: barry.houlihan[at]nuigalway.ie

Funding the First Galway Arts Festival - 1978

A real find this week is the Galway Arts Festival archive is the earliest press cutting in the archive. Taken from the Connacht Sentinel, 21 March 1978, the article is titled “Arts Group appeals to city councillors”. The article outlines the case for assistance and funding to the Galway Arts Group which is organising the first-ever Galway Arts Festival. Founding member of the Galway Arts Group, Ollie Jennings, who later went on to hold the post of Festival Director until 1991, made the appeal to Galway City Councillors to support this venture as the Arts Council had allocated a grant of £1,000 to establish an Arts Festival in Galway.

The requirements such as a venue to act as Festival headquarters, to establish a dedicated Arts Centre for Galway City and establish an annual Arts Festival are stated as being the key goals of Jennings and his group. The deliberations regarding funding from the various Galway city councillors is detailed and makes for an intriguing insight into the planning by a few of an event for Galway that would turn into one of the biggest annual Arts Festivals in Europe!

First Galway Film Fleadh takes to the Screens

The first Galway Film Fleadh was staged in Jul 1989 as part of the Galway Arts Festival. It was a huge addition to film and film production in Ireland. It has since become one of the largest and leading film festivals in Ireland. The archive of the Galway Arts Festival contains many records from  and references relating specifically to the Galway Film Fleadh.

Press Release, First Galway Film Festival

The first Film Fleadh opened on Jul 19^th and ran for five days, culminating on 24 Jul 1989. Its opening screening featured “Venus Peter”, the last film to feature the late Ray McAnally and directed by Ian Seller. The management team of the Galway Film Fleadh included Miriam Allen, Leila Doolan, Joe McMahon, Bob Quinn and Steve Woods.

Official Press Release: First Galway Film Fleadh

The Film Fleadh had dedicated events and screening for Irish language film, Irish made film in English and European and other foreign cinema. It was noted in the press release for the Galway Film Fleadh how Charles Haughey had recently announced his intention of supporting the foundation of an Irish language. The press release further describes the Galway Film Fleadh as being “about the films, film people and film politics; a veritable feast and one not to be missed”.

As well as film from established, new and emerging film makers, the Fleadh featured a series of screenings of archival films from the collection of the Irish Film Institute. The trip down memory lane included footage of rural electrification, T.B. eradication and an Tostal. Films in this series dated from 1911 to the early 1970s and range from advertisements to feature length films.

The Galway Arts Festival archive also contains programme records from the 1996 and 1997 Galway Film Fleadh. The records of the first and trend-setting Galway Film Fleadh, a brave an exciting departure in Irish and European film is a terrific addition to this already intriguing collection. 

Invitation to the premiere of "Venus Peter"

James Thierree - 'Dreams and Magic' in Galway from Chaplin's grandson

One of the most celebrated events on the Irish stage of late has been James Thierree’s Raoul at the Abbey Theatre. Fusing dance, movement, performance and stories, Thierree’s Raoul captivated its sell-out audiences night after night for the duration of its run at the Abbey. Thierree’s credentials and his own amazing story add in no small part to his appeal. Born in France into a family steeped in theatre and circus performance, Thierree’s upbringing was far from the traditional and set him on the path for a life of entertaining and enthralling. What’s even more intriguing is that Thierree can count the comic actor Charlie Chaplin as his maternal grandfather and the celebrated American playwright Eugene O’Neill as his paternal great-grandfather. James’ own parents were vaudeville star Jean-Baptiste Thierree and dancer/designer Victoria Chaplin. Serious lineage indeed.

Starring at the Galway Arts Festival in July 2003, Thierree’s show, entitled the Junebug Symphony, was his first foray as a creator having previously worked mostly as an actor. The show was already a huge international success and was a highlight of the 2003 Galway Arts Festival. The festival archive contains detailed press accounts and interviews with Thierree, who described his show as being about “mood, visuals and being very free as a show”.  There is no continuous narrative he stresses, where anything can happen and plenty does. “Everyone can make their own story into it”.

Given the instant and deep connection between Thierree and Irish audiences at Galway in 2003 and at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin in February of 2011, It is interesting how these non-traditional theatrical works with no central narrative were so warmly received in Galway and later in Dublin. As I work my way through the Galway Arts Festival archive, I will post updates on further material from the James Thierree performances. Photographs, administrative material or any such records will be an incredible insight into the work of this man who grew up in a circus and lives on stage. If anyone has witnessed the 2003 production of the Junebug Symphony  at the Black Box Theatre, Galway, or indeed this year’s performance of Raoul at the Abbey Theatre, we would love to record your thoughts and experiences here!