JIMMY O'DEA

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Fans of Conor Doyle, of which I am one, will be familiar with his wonderful talk on the Theatre Royal which eventually evolved into his Royal Concert. In the course of both these events Jimmy O'Dea had a significant role.

But today (23/11/2016) Conor was putting Jimmy centre stage, with a whole talk to himself.

The big surprise was that Jimmy started off life as an optician. He had wanted to go into theatre but his father wouldn't hear of it so he trained as an optician. His father had a shop in Capel St. which is how the O'Dea and Lemass families became friends. Jimmy and Seán Lemass were good friends during their lifetimes.

The great partnership was Jimmy and Harry O'Donovan, who both acted with him and wrote many of his scripts.

In showing clips from many of Jimmy's shows and appearances on film and television, Conor did not neglect the great Maureen Potter who partnered Jimmy on stage in many of his comedy shows and in the pantos. Maureen was a much talented and often underrated lady. A super trouper.

For those who were not around for Jimmy's theatre performances, he will best be remembered as the star of Walt Disney's film Darby O'Gill and the Little People in which he played Brian, King of the Leprechauns.

In retrospect it was a fairly atrocious piece of Irishry, but it was a big thing at the time with one of our own a star in a Hollywood Disney Film and Walt Disney himself welcomed to Dublin for the premier. Conor is displaying pieces of King Brian's crockery.

And this is one of his royal suits. The surprise is how small Jimmy was. His stage presence belied his height. He was all of 5'4".

Looking at a clip from the film during Conor's talk I was taken with the amount of time the fiddler lingered in the third position, though he thankfully skipped the harmonics.

Dannie O'Donnell, the Donegal fiddler, would have had kittens. He was a master of the discreet use of the third position and the occasional harmonic in his beautifully modulated Irish dance music, but that's another story.

And then there was Jimmy's last show, Finian's Rainbow. A sad occasion for all. Conor has his own copy of the programme.

Spitting Image
(ITA/131 Jimmy O’Dea Collection,
Dublin City Library and Archive)

You can read up on Jimmy here and here and listen to his evergreen Orange and Green monologue here.

Conor's talk was one of two at a seminar, in Dublin City Library and Archive (23/11/2016), on Popular Theatre in Dublin in the context of Explore Your Archives Week.

Grunt

The year was 1965, the month July.

I was showing a French girl round the town and was at a bit of a loss for where to bring her, me not being a tourist myself. After Nelson's Pillar I decided on the Dáil. It was our national parliament, after all, and would be sure to impress.

We ended up in the visitors gallery just as the Taoiseach, Seán Lemass, was on the receiving end of a blast from the chamber's prime orator of the day, James Dillon TD, former leader of Fine Gael, the main opposition party.

Mr. Dillon: I said I expect nothing from a pig but a grunt.

I was mortified. This was not quite the impressive dignified debate I had expected.

And to add to my mortification, the French girl asks "What did he say?"

I think I mumbled something about him not agreeing with the Taoiseach, and there and then swore never to bring anyone near the place ever again.

Dillon had been leader of Fine Gael up to the general election on 7 April 1965. In fact I had been at his last big rally outside the GPO two days before the election. That must have been where I formed my exalted opinion of his fine oratory and no doubt it had influenced me into putting the Dáil on my itinerary.

And in case you think I'm spoofing, that's me and my friend Tom in the detail above.

God be with the days.