John McCullagh – Page 220

24th Lislea Drama Festival

June 8, 2020February 20, 2005 by John McCullagh

The first performance in the 24^th Lislea Drama Festival begins next Saturday evening at 8.30 in the local Community Centre. Clanabogan Drama Circle of Tyrone presents ‘Far Off Fields’ by Lennox Robinson. Nightly tickets are

On Sunday evening it is the Two Bridges Theatre Group from Derry. This is an offshoot of the celebrated Playhouse Players and they present ‘Black Comedy’ by Peter Shaffer. I believe the stage action reverses the normal dark/light situation (with players groping in the light and perfectly competent in its absence) and is a ‘black comedy’ in both senses of the phrase.

The third performance is on Wednesday 2 March when John Keyes (one-time director of Newry Arts Centre) presents his one-man biopic of the life of Michael MacLiammmoir. He was a central figure in the development of the theatre in Ireland in the early and mid-twentieth century. It is entitled ‘The Importance of being Michael’. This is not part of the competitive Festival.

Last year’s winners, the Creggan Drama Circle of Tyrone present ‘April Bright’ by Dermot Bolger on Saturday night week, 5^th March. That weekend’s performances is completed by Pomeroy Players (Tyrone) with Johnny Belinda by Elmer Harris.

The ever-popular Juno and the Paycock (Sean O’Casey) is presented by St Dympna’s Drama Society of Dromore (Tyrone) on Wednesday 9^th March.

The Festival concludes on Friday 11^th March with the home side (Lislea Players) presenting Patrick Kavanagh’s Tarry Flynn. A review of the latter will follow here.

The Adjudicator P. J. Croal will present the Awards Night on the following Friday evening, 12 March.

You are urged to attend as many of the performances as possible. It is always worthwhile.

Wednesday Walks with Father

June 9, 2020February 20, 2005 by John McCullagh

I remember as if it was yesterday our walks up the Camlough Road…

my father holding my hand as I walked up ‘the big ditch’, which turned out to be just a little rise on the side of the road – but back then it was a ‘big ditch’ to me.

Crossmaglen Conspiracy

February 26, 2021February 19, 2005 by John McCullagh

The so-called Crossmaglen Conspiracy of the 1880s rocked the Liberal Government of the time, brought the resignations of Joseph Chamberlain and of O. J. Trevelyan and the return, following a general election, of a Tory Government.

Boys of Crossmaglen

June 9, 2020February 19, 2005 by John McCullagh

In the normal scheme of things, far removed from that two-word misnomer of the easily forgotten Pro-Consol Merlyn Rees – a slur I choose not to repeat! – South Armagh now struggles to return to that idyllic rural backwater it was of old, preserver of the best of our ancient customs that the Newry Journal extols.

Dialect ‘T’ 2

June 9, 2020February 17, 2005 by John McCullagh

Dialect ‘T’ 2

Tell count, ‘I could never tell twice two’

Teem downpour, ‘It’s not raining, it’s teeming’

Take your wee house too!

June 9, 2020February 16, 2005 by John McCullagh

Paddy and Bridget lived in a cottage high up on the far side of Slew Gullion and had few visitors. It was raining cats and dogs the day the parish priest came to call. He had one of them new-fangled umberella things to protect himself and he unfurled it to enter the narrow door of the house.

Once inside, he put it up again and left it on the hearth to dry.

Halliday’s Folly

June 9, 2020February 15, 2005 by John McCullagh

As stated on our Newry Workhouse series, Dessie McGennity’s family moved from the workhouse to the castle above Chapel Street’s High Walk. Des was only seven years old and remembers how frightening it could be. On winter’s nights the wind howled ‘like a Banshee’ and made the shutters bang. It was bitterly cold with the stone floors, walls and stairs. There was an absence of heating and the outside toilet was ‘little more than a hole in the ground’.

Boat Street Rooneys, Carrs etc.

June 9, 2020February 15, 2005 by John McCullagh

John Rooney spoke of the spirit and of the craic that there was in the Boat Street where he grew up.

‘Everyone helped one another in time of trouble or bereavement. They also shared the joys of good times like weddings, Christenings, First Communions and Confirmation, Christmas and Easter. All doors would lie open. If someone overslept so that they would be late for work at the mill or factory, or on the docks of Albert Basin, then they were knocked up. If a child came home complaining they had been given a thump by a teacher or another adult, then they would get another clout from their parents, for surely they deserved the first one!’

Chapel Street luminaries:Jennings

June 8, 2020February 15, 2005 by John McCullagh

Among the notable clans who hailed from this area are the Jennings, McParland, Carr, Carroll, Duffy, Fox, Gorman, Hughes, Feenan, Keenan, Kelly, Coulter, Bannon, Lambe, McElroy, McCourt, McGrath, McGivern, McGuinness, McKeown, McKevitt, Mathers, Murtagh, Price, Traynor and Tumilty families.