“We had great times and it was a great part of our lives”

–Honor Flynn

HONOR Flynn is well known in Tralee for having helped generations of budding young dancers reach their potential. She has given a lifetime of service to teaching Irish Dancing and it was during the early years of Tralee Musical Society - when it was finding its feet – that Honor stepped in to help out. In fact, Tralee Musial Society were fortunate at that time to acquire a great partnership as Honor’s husband, Oliver O’Connor, produced the society’s first ever panto, ‘Aladdin’, with Honor doing choreography. It was a partnership that would serve the society well during its formative years until such time as the baton was handed down to the next generation. Honor looks back at those memorable years:

“What happened was the Tops of the Town finished and some of the older members of the Tralee Opera Society got together and thought it would be a shame to see all that talent wasted in the town. My husband Oliver was very much involved with the Mitchels’ Tops of the Town and when Tralee Musical Society started up they asked would he get involved.

“Once the word was put out there it started to take off and I remember the first panto was ‘Aladdin’ which Oliver produced and I did the choreography, and Renee was the musical director. I remember we had the best of fun and it was great when members of the Mitchels’ Tops of the Town joined. The memories were great and we got over many a winter with the entertainment. Once we made enough money from the pantos they hired David Gordon who was a professional producer and he did ‘South Pacific’ which was one of the first musicals.

“I was involved for about six-years in total but Oliver would have been involved for a lot longer as he was also in the committee. The younger crowd were coming through then and they took over and you can see for yourself how far they’ve come today. The dancing has come a long way since I was involved: if it was anything to do with Irish dancing, I was fine, but some of the modern stuff we just got through it. It would have been very basic compared to today. It’s gone very professional now and it’s like something you would see in the West End.

“It was always busy as Oliver used to produce the shows as well as play a part in them. I remember himself and John Scroope played the ugly sisters in ‘Cinderella’ one year and our kids were young at the time and they got such a kick from it looking at them dressed up in the clothes with the pink wig. That was a nice memory and it was all about the fun.

“We made loads of friends and there was a lovely link up between us and some of the older opera society members. It was lovely to pass it on to the next generation. The talent slowly grew over time and just look at the talent that’s there today. I can still remember a young Oliver Hurley auditioning for the part of Buttons in ‘Cinderella’ and he just took off after that. We had great times and it was a great part of our lives.”