Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content.
Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist.
If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter .
Support our mission and join our community now.
Subscribe Today!
To continue reading this article, you can subscribe for as little as €0.50 per week which will also give you access to all of our premium content and archived articles!
Alternatively, you can pay €0.50 per article, capped at €1 per day.
Thank you for supporting Ireland's best local journalism!
The Interview Ballindine native Noël Kirrane is a familiar face to all fans of Ballinrobe Musical Society.
Everything in ship-shape
A Ballindine native living in Tuam, Noël Kirrane has played an integral part in Ballinrobe Musical Society productions since 1993
The Interview Daniel Carey
FIFTEEN years have passed since Michael Sweeney and the late Joe Dillon approached Noël Kirrane about becoming involved with Ballinrobe Musical Society. They met in the golf club, Kirrane said ‘Why not?’, and ‘My Fair Lady’ was his first show. The Ballindine native has been involved ever since, and was honoured with life membership of the society three years ago. “I’m like de Valera at this stage,” he says with a laugh. “Once they put him in, they couldn’t get him out!” This year’s production, currently in the middle of an eight-night run, is their most ambitious yet. This is the very first production in the Republic of Ireland of ‘Titanic – The Musical’, and rehearsals began in early November. It’s Kirrane’s third musical in six months, as he is also involved with the Marian Choral Society, which performed ‘The Pirates of Penzance’ in October, and teaches in St Jarlath’s College, which along with their female counterparts in the Mercy put on ‘Half A Sixpence’ before Christmas. When we met last Wednesday afternoon, Kirrane was looking forward to his first night off in a fortnight – and his last for a while. Dress rehearsals last Thursday and Friday were followed by the show’s opening night on Saturday, which runs every evening this week until next Sunday. It’s a sign of Ballinrobe’s willingness to shoot for the stars that they have taken on a show that involves a ‘huge cast’ and is among the most difficult to stage. Kirrane recalls saying during the production of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ in 1995: “You can’t beat that story.” He feels the same about the plot of this year’s production which, he says, ‘still strikes a chord’ almost 100 years on. “It’s such a real thing and a human tragedy, so you have to do it with dignity. What makes a good musical for me is good melodies, good harmony and a credible story – a lot of musicals are daft, boy-meets-girl nonsense! But this is particularly good, because it’s a real story and everybody knows it.” The musical was first shown on Broadway in 1997, but despite its recent provenance, its style owes little to the James Cameron movie which appeared in the same year. “It has nothing to do with the film, and that Celine Dion song is not in this show!” he offers by way of a disclaimer. “Anybody who is looking for Kate Winslet and Leonardo Di Caprio should stay at home! That film was obsessed with these two people, but the musical focuses on different people: third-class passengers, second-class, and first class, and the crew. There’s a lovely scene with an oldish couple who decide to stay together because they’ve always been together. There are some lovely touches in it.” A few weeks ago, the whole cast sat down to watch ‘A Night To Remember’, the 1958 film about the Titanic. “It’s a black and white film and has none of the fancy stuff that was in the later film, but it’s fantastic and very moving,” Kirrane explains. The job of musical director means teaching all the choruses and the principals and rehearsing with them, as well as assembling and conducting the orchestra. Some musical societies have a rehearsal pianist, but in the absence of such a luxury, Kirrane also fills that role in Ballinrobe, which he describes as ‘a very ambitious and far-seeing society’. “They have a few things going for them: they have a big number of people involved, plus they have a lot of very good people. They also have a wonderful stage crew. The other thing, of course, is [that] they draw people from all over Mayo.” With no other member of the Association of Irish Musical Societies (AIMS) in the county, the Ballinrobe group includes members from as far away as Westport, Castlebar and even Crossmolina. Asked to recall his favourite musical productions, he mentions one from each of the three groups he’s involved in – ‘Ragtime’ from Ballinrobe, for which he received an AIMS award nomination; the first Irish production of ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ in Tuam two years ago, and the Irish school premiere of ‘Les Miserables’ in 2002. A football fan who remains proud of his Mayo roots despite being resident in Tuam, Kirrane cries ‘Mayo for Sam!’ at every season’s opening rehearsal. He was a young man when Galway won three All-Ireland titles in a row in the 1960s, a team that included Noel Tierney, who was ‘just up the road, between Milltown and Ballindine’. He knows plenty of former Jarlath’s students who made their mark on the football field, and has spent those years ‘hoping and hoping and hoping’ to see Mayo’s All-Ireland drought end. The musical is a St Jarlath’s rite of passage. It was the first taste of the stage for Seán Costello and Niall Conway (both stars of ‘Titanic’), and David Langan, who has regularly appeared in Ballinrobe musicals. There is, of course, a long link between Mayo and St Jarlath’s, and Henry Gavin appeared in ‘Oklahoma!’ the year before he led the college football team to Hogan Cup glory. Kirrane’s association with the show stretches back to his early days as a boarder, when in the era before co-productions with the Mercy, young boys whose voices hadn’t yet broken played the female parts. “When I was a first year in Jarlath’s, I was ‘a girl’, as was the habit then,” he chuckles. “Many Mayo footballers were girls as well – they appeared in their dresses with their football socks and football togs! It was daft when you think of it, really.” Notwithstanding his donning of a frock, he enjoyed his time as a boarder ‘immensely’ and has ‘no bad memories’ of that time. Indeed, the absence of lights at the school at night is something he notes with regret when he’s in town on a winter evening. He has taught music and French in St Jarlath’s since 1981 and continues to throw himself into the musical with enthusiasm every year. “It’s is a great opportunity for kids in schools,” he explains. “They still get a great kick out of the musical, and it’s good for them. It’s a great way for the young kids to get to know the opposite sex, rather than roaring over loud music at a disco. They work together and they chat together and they have fun together, just like ordinary people, instead of having contrived meetings. A lot of them come out of their shells very quickly when they meet the girls.” Musical lovers often have to deal with a condescending attitude from ‘straight theatre’ people. Not surprisingly, Kirrane has a robust attitude towards such snobbery. “I think it’s wrong,” he says simply. “I like plays myself, but a musical is a play plus an awful lot more. Standard musicals mightn’t be as heavy as some plays, but then ‘Titanic’ is about as serious as you get as a musical, and there’s plenty of frothy plays that aren’t much good.” He notes that musicals ‘don’t get much recognition or money from the Arts Council’, despite the large numbers involved (150 in Ballinrobe alone). Any money needed to finance the shows is got from knocking on doors and holding table quizzes. Luckily, the town is very supportive in this respect. “There are many people who help out in so many ways,” he notes. “Between the number of people who go into the show, the number of people who support it, and the number of people who back it financially as patrons and sponsors. There are often hundreds of small little things – you might need to borrow something off somebody, a little prop or something. And as far as I can see, everybody in Ballinrobe goes to see the show. It is a great movement. No better or no worse than straight drama – just harder to do!”
ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW
ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW
ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW
ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW
ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW
ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW
ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW
ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW
ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW
ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW
ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW
4
To continue reading this article, please subscribe and support local journalism!
Subscribing will allow you access to all of our premium content and archived articles.
Subscribe
To continue reading this article for FREE, please kindly register and/or log in.
Registration is absolutely 100% FREE and will help us personalise your experience on our sites. You can also sign up to our carefully curated newsletter(s) to keep up to date with your latest local news!
Warrior: Dáithí Lawless, 15, from Martinstown, in his uniform and holding a hurley, as he begins third year of secondary school in Coláiste Iósaef, Kilmallock I PICTURE: Adrian Butler
This one-woman show stars Brídín Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh, an actress, writer and presenter who has several screen credits including her role as Katy Daly on Ros na Rún, and the award-winning TV drama Crá
Breaffy Rounders will play Glynn Barntown (Wexford) in the Senior Ladies Final and Erne Eagles (Cavan) in the Senior Men's All-Ireland Final in the GAA National Games Development Centre, Abbotstown
Subscribe or register today to discover more from DonegalLive.ie
Buy a paper
Buy the e-paper of the Donegal Democrat, Donegal People's Press, Donegal Post and Inish Times here for instant access to Donegal's premier news titles.
Keep up with the latest news from Donegal with our daily newsletter featuring the most important stories of the day delivered to your inbox every evening at 5pm.
