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Irish Examiner
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Cork patrons share ticket stubs and anecdotes from 170 years of Cork Opera House
On December 12, 1955, nine-year-old Kay Triggs was at the Cork Opera House for rehearsals of the upcoming pantomime Sleeping Beauty. But what started as a normal evening ended in the worst night for the Opera House in living memory. Mid-routine, the young performers were stopped by teacher Eileen Kavanagh. ''We have to get you all out,' she said, 'because it's a very bad night out and we're afraid there might be floods.' They said nothing about a fire,' Triggs recalled. Kay Triggs from Ballyvolane with a programme from a 1975 production of Tops of the Town. Picture: David Creedon On her way, Triggs remembered her new raincoat in the dressing room. 'I managed to sneak back in. It was quiet, calm, no sign of fire. I could see orange lights flashing, which [it turned out] were the flames, through the window.' The young Triggs got safely out of the building and headed back home to Paul St. All who had been inside were thankfully unscathed but the fire devastated the Cork Opera House. The city was without its beloved venue until 1965, when it was reopened after a decade of fundraising. This year, the venue celebrates 170 years since it first opened its doors on May 21, 1855. The celebrations include a Send It Home campaign, where people are encouraged to send in their Opera House memorabilia to be scanned and catalogued. Some members of the public at a Drop-Off weekend for the Send It Home campaign to bring in memorabilia, including programmes, posters, photographs, letters, and any other historical items related to the Opera House, Cork. Picture: David Creedon On Sunday, May 25, a Send It Home drop-in day was held at the Opera House, and Triggs was among the many who shared their memories and ephemera. The collected stories wove a picture of the dedicated theatre buffs who were behind shows such as Summer Revels and the pantomimes, many of whom volunteered their time. All of the memories shared through Send It Home are key to the Cork Opera House story, said its CEO Eibhlín Gleeson. 'It's steeped in culture in Cork, it's in people's blood in the city,' she said of the venue. 'You can really sense that there are generations of families who have a relationship with the Opera House, and that's a really special thing.' Some of the souvenirs from the Michael Twomey collection. Picture: David Creedon One of the oldest items handed in was a programme from 1909. 'There's a lot of families who have massive ties with the Opera House over the years,' said marketing and communications manager Michael Carr. 'So we were hopeful that we'd come up with some treasures, and that's how it panned out.' Triggs brought with her a Tops of the Town programme from 50 years ago, an event for which she was choreographer. She performed in There's No Business Like Show Business the night the Opera House reopened in 1965, and continued performing until she got married. But theatre wasn't all glamour. 'I played the rear-end of a cow in Jack And The Beanstalk,' she said of one pantomime. In recent years, she has taken up ballroom dancing and line dancing. 'I'm back to my first love.' The Cork Opera House after the devastating fire in December 1955. The city was without its beloved venue until 1965. LOST IN THE FIRE Bernadette O'Leary was also rehearsing at the Opera House the night of the fire, aged eight. 'They said, 'Go down the stairs straight away, leave your coats, leave everything, and go outside the doors,'' she recalled. 'Somebody ran up the street shouting, 'The Opera House is on fire, the roof has collapsed,' which it had. We were only out 10 minutes.' Later on, she joined the Cork Operatic Society and the Gilbert & Sullivan Group (G&S Group), where she met her husband during its show The Gondoliers. Cork is fiercely proud of its pantomime tradition, and O'Leary maintains that Ignatius Comerford (cousin of another Cork theatre legend, Paddy Comerford) was one of the best dames that came out of Cork. Bernadette O'Leary from Bishopstown holds a painting of her and Ignatius Comerford by artist Peter Sanquest in a scene from the 1953 production of Red Riding Hood. Picture: David Creedon 'They always said there was no one to match him,' she said. She brought with her a 'precious' painting of herself and Comerford, a present from him after they starred together in Red Riding Hood in 1953. Jennifer Nolan from Beaumont and her son John, with a souvenir programme from 1927 of The Cork Operatic Society production of 'My Lady Molly'. Picture: David Creedon One of the oldest items brought in last Sunday was a programme from 1927, owned by Jennifer Nolan. 'My husband's family was very involved in the Operatic Society,' explained Nolan. The programme is a time capsule of 1920s Cork and includes ads for businesses which are still part of the city fabric, like Henchy's Bar in St Luke's. Michael Canton holds a picture of the cast from The Student Prince where he starred with his sister Gertie in 1951. Picture: David Creedon In Michael Canton's hands when he arrived were photographs of his older sister Gertie, and a programme from when she played Gretchen in the Cork Operatic Society's production of The Student Prince in 1951. When he heard the call for memories, Canton went searching. 'St Anthony found them,' he said of the photographs. Gertie's first show was Show Boat when she was 18 but after she married at 24 she stopped performing regularly. A GREAT OUTLET In the 1940s and 1950s, the Opera House was 'a great outlet' during quieter times in the city, said Canton. He too was there on the night of the fire. 'It was terribly sad to see it go,' he said, recalling how afterwards the ballet doyenne Joan Denise Moriarty began putting on sellout shows, such as Swan Lake, at the City Hall. Moriarty founded the Cork Ballet Group in 1947 and its first performance was that year on the Opera House stage. Two others handing in their memorabilia were Lorraine Manley and Sheila Healy. They shared memories of a 1987 performance of Sive, when 16-year-old Manley took on her first lead role on the Opera House stage and Healy was wardrobe mistress. 'I remember her dress — I had to wet the costume every night because Sive was found in a bog,' said Healy. Frank Mackey and Lorraine Manley in a promo picture for a 1987 production of Sive at the Opera House. Manley brought along a large book of memorabilia, including photographs taken by her father of her acting journey, which began in the Montfort College of Performing Arts (Montforts). Starring alongside Manley in Sive was Frank Mackey, now a longtime fixture on stage at the annual panto, which he co-writes with Trevor Ryan. Healy was wardrobe mistress for countless productions at the Opera House, starting in 1953 with G&S Group shows including The Pirates Of Penzance. Two years later, the fire struck. She was nearby rehearsing for a show, and headed with others to Camden Quay when they heard the news. 'We were crying our eyes out,' she said. Lorraine Manley from Douglas goes through her fathers scrap book of her preformances on the stage of the Opera House at a Drop-Off Weekend for the Send It Home campaign where members of the public were invited to bring in memorabilia, including programmes, posters, photographs, letters, and any other historical items related to the Opera House, Cork. Picture: David Creedon Some years later, Bill Twomey, former manager of the Opera House, asked her to help with the costumes for the pantomime Goldilocks And The Three Bears. She worked closely for years with James N Healy of the G&S Group, Frances Barry, and theatre designer Patrick Murray. She was also heavily involved with Summer Revels, a revue-type variety show which started in 1971. Key figures involved in Summer Revels included writer and director Michael Twomey (of the duo Cha and Miah, alongside Frank Duggan), performer Paddy Comerford, musical arranger Ronnie O'Shaughnessy, Healy's husband Dick Healy, and Montforts director Eileen Nolan. Wardrobe designer Sheila Healy from Douglas with one of her dresses from 1962 at a Drop-Off Weekend for the Send It Home campaign where members of the public were invited to bring in memorabilia, including programmes, posters, photographs, letters, and any other historical items related to the Opera House, Cork. Picture: David Creedon Healy also worked with Billa O'Connell, the legendary panto star who died in 2021 and whose career traversed 70 years of the Opera House. And she once met Ella Fitzgerald when she played at the venue during Cork Jazz Festival in 1980, describing the night as 'just magic'. She donated many costumes to the Opera House for the Send It Home campaign. Her daughter Mary remembered the children standing on the kitchen table, 'twirling in tulle as they made costumes for the ballet… you'd go to the cupboard to get a saucepan to find your father had taken it for a show'. REVELATIONS Manley joined the Montforts at seven. She performed in Rock Nativity in 1980, a musical written by David Wood, which was filmed at the Opera House and broadcast on RTÉ that Christmas Eve. It starred Johnny Logan, fresh from his Eurovision success. 'He used to give me piggy-backs and buy me Club Milks,' recalled Manley, who also starred in the Summer Revels and pantos for years. Her performing peers became family, she said. 'Any time there's a Montforts reunion, it's like we never parted.' Marie Cotter from Boreenmanna Road, with a tape recording of a 1973 production of The Wizard of Oz. Picture: David Creedon Another person who brought along memorabilia was Marie Cotter, who was with the Montforts from its 1960s beginnings and took part in pantomimes every year. 'It was a way of life that was absolutely fantastic,' she said. 'We'd be up in Dublin with RTÉ doing some shows. We [the Montfort Singers] made a record in 1971, Butterfly, with Cathal Dunne. We were doing things that people weren't doing.' She was also involved in The Swans of the Lee, a revue show that ran in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and in 1971 married Michael Cotter, son of comedian Paddy Cotter, who was involved in The Swans. 'Everybody married nearly everybody else because you hadn't time to meet anybody else,' laughed Cotter. The children of actor and director Twomey — Des Twomey, Laura Eldoh, and Sharon Neville — arrived with scrapbooks, posters, and other memorabilia. Twomey passed away in 2017 at the age of 84. 'Dad was meticulous. Every year when he put on a new show, he would take all the little paper clippings and he would fill in this huge scrapbook,' said Des. A photograph of one of the many Summer Revels shows to have happened at the Opera House. The children described a father constantly writing or rehearsing shows such as Summer Revels and the pantomime. One night in the early 1970s, Summer Revels took place during a national ESB strike, recalled Des. 'But the show must go on. So dad sent out for candles… and they put a line of candles down the auditorium and put loads of candles around the stage, and the show did go on,' he said. The children would be brought along to the Opera House during rehearsals, and Des described the venue as 'our little playground for years'. Twomey worked as an insurance broker but, even before his retirement, he was focused on the stage. 'They weren't concerned about who knew them and how important they were,' said Sharon of her father and his peers. 'They really were dedicated to what they were doing.' UNDER YOUR SKIN Today, Ashley Keating is programming manager at the Cork Opera House. 'It gets under your skin. It's less a place to work and more part of what you are,' he said. He's worked on many shows — music, theatre, panto, and more — but some stick out in his memory, such as Gregory Porter's 2024 Cork Jazz Festival performance and The National's and Bon Iver's performances at the Sounds From a Safe Harbour festival, which is curated by Bryce and Aaron Dessner of The National, Cillian Murphy, playwright Enda Walsh, and Mary Hickson, former CEO of the Cork Opera House. Many comedians return regularly to the Cork Opera House, including Michael McIntyre and Kevin Bridges. 'Once you have a Cork audience on your side, they're with you for life,' said Keating. Now, 170 years on from its founding, the Opera House (which is a non-profit with charitable status) aims to keep evolving and reflecting the interests of artists and audiences in Cork. This has meant, for example, establishing a concert orchestra in 2015, putting on the Cork Proms, and setting up artist-in-residence programmes. Eibhlín Gleeson, CEO, Cork Opera House. Picture: David Creedon 'It's about making sure that we are helping artists develop careers, that we are providing consistent opportunities across a number of areas,' said CEO Gleeson. After the Opera House burned down, it was largely through the support of the local community that it was able to be rebuilt and reopened. 'The community stuck with it. That resilience and that rigour still exists in the Opera House today,' said Gleeson. 'This idea that we will do whatever we can to be healthy, successful, and inclusive, and make sure that we exist for another 170 years.' The Cork Opera House 'Send It Home' campaign, in partnership with Pure Cork and Fáilte Ireland, is accepting memorabilia until July 1. Contributions can be delivered to Cork Opera House's foyer. Email sendithome@ or call 021 427 0022.
Business Insider
30-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Westpac Banking (WEBNF) Gets a Sell from J.P. Morgan
J.P. Morgan analyst Andrew Triggs maintained a Sell rating on Westpac Banking (WEBNF – Research Report) today and set a price target of A$28.50. The company's shares closed yesterday at $20.20. Confident Investing Starts Here: Triggs covers the Financial sector, focusing on stocks such as Macquarie Group Limited, ANZ Group Holdings, and National Australia Bank Limited. According to TipRanks, Triggs has an average return of 3.1% and a 51.58% success rate on recommended stocks. The word on The Street in general, suggests a Moderate Sell analyst consensus rating for Westpac Banking with a $18.59 average price target, which is a -7.97% downside from current levels. In a report released on May 26, Jarden also maintained a Sell rating on the stock with a A$30.00 price target.
Business Insider
30-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
J.P. Morgan Sticks to Their Sell Rating for Bank of Queensland (BKQNF)
In a report released today, Andrew Triggs from J.P. Morgan maintained a Sell rating on Bank of Queensland (BKQNF – Research Report), with a price target of A$6.10. The company's shares closed last Thursday at $4.14. Confident Investing Starts Here: Easily unpack a company's performance with TipRanks' new KPI Data for smart investment decisions Receive undervalued, market resilient stocks right to your inbox with TipRanks' Smart Value Newsletter According to TipRanks, Triggs is a 3-star analyst with an average return of 3.1% and a 51.58% success rate. Triggs covers the Financial sector, focusing on stocks such as Macquarie Group Limited, ANZ Group Holdings, and National Australia Bank Limited. Currently, the analyst consensus on Bank of Queensland is a Moderate Sell with an average price target of $4.06. BKQNF market cap is currently $3.29B and has a P/E ratio of 16.50.
