GAME OF SETS

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This is the third prong of the Helen Hooker O'Malley triad on show in Dublin at the moment. I have already posted on the launch of the NLI & GOP elements both of which relate to her photography. This is something completely different.

Helen founded the Players Theatre in 1945, in collaboration with Liam Redmond and Gerard Healy. She had trained as a graphic designer and became the stage and costume designer for Players hence the sets maquettes, ten of which have been donated to the Dublin City Archive by her son Cormac.

Looking at the photo of the stage set above you could imagine it was a full size set. But the maquettes are tiny and the details in them are amazing.

Anne Marie Kelly

First the formalities of the launch of this exhibition on 26 June 2019 at the Dublin City Libraries and Archive in Pearse Street.

Anne Marie is responsible for development and marketing on the library development team.

The exhibition had been mounted in close collaboration with Liz D'Arcy, who did an unbelievable job on reconstructing and conserving these little masterpieces, and Cormac O'Malley who donated them.

Mary Clarke

Mary, as City Archivist, was the recipient of the donation and she was right pleased.

Liz D'Arcy

Liz has the magic touch, though it sounds far too simple when you put it like that.

She gave us some idea of the painstaking process of sorting all the bits and pieces in the pile into their separate sets, then restoring them individually and reconstructing the set. The level of detail here, and in such tiny sizes, was amazing, right down to the individual twigs in the fireplace and the underlying ash. We're talking 3D here and not just a paint job, though that too.

Liz explained the intensive ongoing contact between herself and Cormac in the USA via emails, photos etc. as all the elements (including the tiniest) of the sets were identified, restored, and put in place. At the end they discovered that the leftover pieces actually made up another set.

You might take a moment to check out Liz's video from her Facebook page.

Cormac Hooker O'Malley

Cormac was so engaged and passionate about the project that he called for a pause while he explained further minute details in the set.

I really felt thrilled to be present at this unveiling of a piece of history.

Lord Mayor Paul McAuliffe

The formal launch of the exhibition fell to the newly elected Lord Mayor of Dublin. Paul has many local connections, and he departed from his script, I should really say abandoned it, to identify with at least one of the locations represented by a maquette.

Cormac then spoke about his mother and the later fate of the maquettes which, of necessity, were just crudely folded up and packed into a suitcase as he travelled the world. Needless to say, under these conditions, they just fell more and more apart.

But that is not the whole story. He commented that the mould which Liz had to get off them had been picked up from various locations and a forensic study of this in itself would tell an interesting story.

I think Cormac is filling the Lord Mayor in on some further details.

So we get to the point where the Lord Mayor feels confident enough to tell us what it's all about.

This is a photo that Cormac wanted taken to pay tribute to his and Liz's intensive trans-Atlantic cooperation on the restoration and reconstruction. Congratulations to you both.

Cormac, Anne Marie & Mairead Owens

Mairead is the recently appointed Dublin City Librarian. She has had an impressively varied career and came from her most recent post as librarian at the Lexicon in Dún Laoghaire.

Liz, Gavin D'Arcy, Raymond Refaussé

Gavin is Liz's other half and Raymond is recently retired Librarian & Archivist at the Church of Ireland Representative Church Body Library.

Étáin Hooker O'Mallley

Étáin is Cormac's sister.

Diarmuid Peavoy

Diarmuid is a former classmate of mine.

Tanya Kiang

Tanya is the Director of the Gallery of Photography in Temple Bar which is hosting another leg of the triad.

I'm looking at a few more maquettes below, but first a recap on a "before and after" from Liz's Facebook page to remind you of the miracle.

An unexpected bonus, two of Helen's sketches for further sets found among the material.

I'm sorry to have to write this part of the post and I hope it doesn't deter anyone from coming to visit these miniature masterpieces with their more than colourful history.

When I arrived first, I thought I'd come on the wrong day as the Dublin Camera Club exhibition was still up and running.

I eventually realised that the maquettes were in the glass cases around the wall.

I had been expecting them centre stage, so to speak. I do realise that their small size would make it difficult for them to command immediate attention without the addition of a lot of back up material such as timelines, posters of the restoration process and perhaps the odd photo of a set on stage during a run in the Players' Theatre if such exists.

However that wasn't the problem. It was one of timing. The space is usually booked about 18 months in advance. I'm well aware of this as it came up when I was discussing the possibility of a photo exhibition of my own with Máire Kennedy way back. There used to be times when the space was empty for weeks but no more it seems.

Then, Liz only got the first set (Black Stranger) in December and the following nine sets in February. She began returning them, on a phased basis from the end of May. So there was huge time pressure and she put in a lot of additional hours at weekends and evenings.

In the normal course of events we'd be talking about an exhibition in early 2021. However the opportunity was seized to exhibit the sets at the same time as the Temple Bar exhibition and, fortunately, the Dublin Camera Club were not using the display cases. Had things turned out otherwise we might not have seen them at all at this stage. So full marks to Mary Clarke for not allowing the perfect to be the enemy of the excellent on this occasion and to Liz for rising to the occasion.

I asked Liz and she confirmed that this was one of the jobs of which she is most proud.

I do hope there will be another exhibition of the sets in the future along the lines I was expecting above. They are really fabulous and deserve to be appreciated against their full background. There is fabulous article by Aura McMenamin in the Dublin Inquirer setting out the background to the Players Theatre and the restoration and a promise of more to come.

And one final subversive remark - I think it's time Admiral Nelson called it a day. I know his head is upstairs but the Pillar does limit flexibility when planning exhibitions in this space. [Update 17/9/2019: Oops! I now realise that the (underlying) pillar is structural and its removal would bring the house down, and not in the theatrical sense of the phrase. Ah well, we have to work with what we've got.]

Do come in to see these maquettes. It is an opportunity not to be missed. The exhibition continues up to the end of July and I gather there will be a video in place shortly illustrating the restoration process (ie Liz at work). The Dublin Camera Club exhibition is due to be replaced by one on Tony Gregory.

The other two elements of the Hooker triad, in Meeting House Square in Temple Bar, are also well worth a visit. The Gallery of Photography leg continues till 1st September and the NLI Photo Archive leg until 1st November.

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Photo courtesy of Diarmuid Peavoy

Rosie's Bridge

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Today saw the launch of a booklet setting out the background to the naming of the Rosie Hackett Bridge. It includes an original essay on Rosie and some biographical details on the other four shortlisted contenders.

The launch was by Dublin Lord Mayor, Oisin Quinn, who not only paid tribute to Rosie but reminded us of the other unsuccessful but very worthy shortlisted contenders.

Councillor Dermot Lacey, who chaired the City Council's Naming Committee, explained how the final decision was made. There were 85 nominations and over 18,000 people made submissions in one way or another. Voting was by the Borda count method which operates on the basis of stated preferences and produces a single winner representing the maximum of consensus among the voters. Dermot claimed that this was a first for a public authority and he is nearly right as perusal of the Wikipedia link above will show.

Dermot is a great speaker, providing substance with entertainment, or is it entertainment with substance, and if ever the toastmasters run out of members, then Dermot is your man.

And he doesn't confine himself to mere speech. He played us the first public performance of a new ballad he has written for Rosie and her bridge and promised to donate the millions it would generate to Alone, an organisation looking after the elderly set up by Willie Bermingham, a Dublin firefighter who also figured on the bridge's shortlist.

And the worthy runners up will not be forgotten. The intention is to honour them, one way or another, in the future. But, as Dermot reminded us, you have to be very careful about this. Take Bram Stoker for instance. The East Link Bridge, which is about to revert to the control of the Council from the current private operator, could come up for renaming. As the Council, at this stage, intends retaining the toll on the bridge, calling it after Bram Stoker could give Dublin wits a field day, starting with "The Bloodsucker Bridge".

Clearly, the Lord Mayor is impressed with the new ballad and who knows, we might find him giving his own rendition at a future function - the opening of the bridge perhaps.

And these are the girls, whose vociferous and relentless campaign across the social media got the bridge for Rosie.

The Lord Mayor hears May O'Brien's reminiscences of Rosie. May was a stalwarth in trade union circles fighting for workers', and particularly women workers', rights. You can read one of these reminiscences in the booklet.

James Curry (right) who researched and wrote the piece about Rosie in the booklet, with brother and sister Bill and May O'Brien (centre) both of whom are well known for their trade union advocacy and leadership on behalf of workers, and Laura Paul (left) a friend of May's.

You can access the Dublin City Libraries' press release online including the PDF of the booklet itself. The booklet is a lovely production, as we have come to expect from Dublin City Council. I am lost in admiration for the cover photo/montage which succeeds in obscuring the hideous Liberty Hall, no doubt in deference to Rosie who was strongly opposed to the destruction of the original building.

The bridge will be opened on 20 May 2014 and James will be giving a talk on Rosie in Liberty Hall on 19 May 2014.

Dublin

Brendan Teeling
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The occasion was the launching of the book Dublin - The Making of a Capital City by David Dickson, Professor of Modern History at TCD. The book is a magnum opus and draws heavily on the work of those who went before. It covers a thousand years of the Capital's history, from the Viking era to the Spire, of which more later.

The master of ceremonies was Deputy City Librarian, Brendan Teeling, last seen on my website at Raheny library's fortieth anniversary celebration.

He teed it up nicely for Dermot Lacey who was launching the book on behalf of the Lord Mayor.

Dermot Lacey

Dermot is a member of Dublin City Council and a himself former Lord Mayor. Not only does he have a great love for Dublin city, but, unlike many another launcher, he had actually read the book he was launching, all 700 pages of it.

In the course of an erudite and humorous speech, he called on the Bank of Ireland to return its building on College Green to the State for use as a museum of Dublin. It is now bailout call in time. Not only was Dublin, until today, lacking this sort of overview survey history, it still lacks a proper museum of Dublin. It was made clear that this was not meant as any reflection on the wonderful Little Museum of Dublin on St. Stephen's Green.

Dermot also confessed to having mixed feelings about the Spire. He said that when asked what he thought of it he would throw the question back at the questioner. If they didn't like it he would tell them he voted against it at the time. If they did like it he would tell them that, as Lord Mayor, he inaugurated it.

Mary Daly

Mary Daly, Professor of History at UCD and currently the first woman president of the Royal Irish Academy in its 229 year history, paid tribute to the book, the first to cover such a period in the Capital's history in such a scholarly and readable manner. She felt that only David Dickson could have produced such a work.

David Dickson

David Dickson made the point that the book could not have been produced without the access to sources provided by the digital age, and without the work that went before him on which he drew massively.

I note that he remarks, on page 562, regarding the Spire, that "Certainly its scale served to diminish the verticality of O'Connell Street". That gave me great encouragement as it is a point I have been making about both the Spire and its predecessor, the Pillar, for many a year. I can still remember being amazed at how majestic a building the GPO was revealed as in the immediate aftermath of the demolition of Nelson's Pillar in 1966, and how much wider O'Connell Street looked in its absence. It might have been a fitting gesture, in this 1916 centenary year, to have demolished the Spire, a monument to Celtic Tiger hubris and an insult to the leaders of the Rising, and to have restored the GPO to its rightful prominence. Those last bits are me talking and I have no idea whether they might be shared by David Dickson. Must ask him sometime.

The launch took place, appropriately enough, in the Dublin City Library and Archive in Pearse St. This venue has been developed over the years and is not only a research library, but it houses much of the City's archive and, in recent years, has acquired a fine lecture hall and exhibition space.

Needless to say, the speakers paid a handsome and well deserved tribute to what Dermot called "the two Marys", Máire Kennedy in charge on the library side and Mary Clarke on the archives. There's hardly a work of note relating to the city of Dublin, including the present book, which does not figure one or both of these generous scholars in the acknowledgements section.

Family History Day 2014

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The Dublin City Library and Archive organises a Family History Day in March and a Local History Day in October every year. The day consists of a number of 45 minute presentations on relevant but not necessarily related topics.

Today (28/3/2014) saw the Family History Day. The conference room was full and the programme packed with goodies.

However, before launching into the talks, it was Máire Kennedy's sad duty to call for a minute of silence for Shane Mac Thomáis who died tragically at the end of last week. You can see a tribute to Shane here.

The programme kicked off with Conor Dodd taking us through the available military records, with particular emphasis on WWI, the centenary commemoration of which starts this year. Conor has been a long time at this and seemed to know the UK National Archive in Kew like the back of his hand.

He was followed by his father, Liam, who took us through the Irish Lights records. Liam has spend some 30 odd years in the service and not only is he familiar with what is available, he was responsible himself for destroying a fair bit of what is not available, and while he now bemoans the destruction of many records including those he destroyed himself, he has a clear conscience as he acted under orders and the objective at the time was simply to free up precious space.

Ricky Shannon took us through her vast family of tanners, many of whom lived in the James's St./Mount Brown area. She told of a small planned family reunion which quickly expanded to take 100 people but which nevetheless proved a great success.

The afternoon kicked off with Jacinta Prunty illustrating the usefulness of maps to the family historian. She showed how many maps have unexpected quantities of genealogical information and made the point that one always needs to walk the walk, even if it is only on paper. The physical/geographical element provided by maps is a vital element in getting the sense of a place and these are becoming increasingly available including in the series of town atlases which is being added to all the time.

Jacinta continues to field questions at the end of a very lively Q&A, while Máire manages the digital transition to the next session.

Padraic Kennedy gave us a whistlestop tour through the Irish military archives of which he is Director. These archives have a vast amount of material which is being steadily digitised. While it is necessary to make an appointment to visit the archives, you get the royal treatment as soon as you go through the door. I can testify to that from my own experience.

And finally we get to Rosie Hackett. Rosie has got the latest bridge over the Liffey named after her following a very intensive online campaign conducted mainly by three young ladies whose enthusiasm for the task sometimes led to supporters of the Rosie campaign rewriting of history on the fly.

Never mind. James Curry demolished the myth and revealed behind it a very worthy and fascinating lady who well deserves to have the bridge named after her. He helped prepare a pamphlet showing the real Rosie Hackett and this will be launched by Dublin City Council on 9 May next.

Meanwhile there will be some tidying up of the records to be done, not least replacing the photo of Lady Gregory on Rosie's current Wikipedia page with one of the real Rosie. The page is here and hopefully by the time you get round to looking it up it will have been straightened out.