I looked after Thin Lizzy at Summerhill College
Yeats Cup several times for reciting Yeats poetry.
Eddie went to Summerhill College in the late 1960s, with the advantage of having two big brothers to look out for him. There he was given a chance to develop his theatrical talents. He said: “As they say in the Mafia, I was a made man.
“I was very lucky with the speech and drama from primary school and then I also began to get involved in adult drama in Sligo.
“In Summerhill we did a number of interesting plays. Eddie Tighe was the usual producer. “We did a play by Agatha Christie with a politically incorrect title. I had a big role in that and The Ghost Train. We put them on in the Father Flanagan Hall.”
EDDIE AND his two friends managed to land one of Ireland’s top rock bands to play in Summerhill alongside all the drama. He said: “It was the first impresario role that I ever had, and it was in the early 1970s.
“It was Thin Lizzy, Brian Downey, Eric Bell and Phil Lynott – the earliest form of the band. They were going on tour, and were just really starting out. We were fundraising.
“I was to meet and greet these guys and look after the band. I was just 16. They had been given a dressing-room and I was sent to their quarters to see if they were okay.
“Downey and Bell were tuning up on the stage and Phil was in the dressing room.
“So innocently I went in with a can of Coke and a can of Fanta. And there was Phil smoking a ‘continental cigarette’ or joint and blowing out the window and he said to me: ‘Would you like a blow, man?’ I was stunned and said, ‘no, Mr Lynott. Would you like a Fanta or a Coke?’
“I did not realise he was preparing for his show with an ingredient that was illegal. “They were brilliant, and I am still a fan. We made quite a few quid for the college.”
Eddie was being asked to play roles by local groups.
He said: “I had the great benefit of my mentor, the late great Walter McDonagh, who is the father of the very gifted Mary and Kate McDonagh and who was an inspirational figure in the famous Sligo Drama Circle, with whom I was privileged to perform.
“Mary is
awonderful choreographer and Kate McDonagh was my muse for a number of years.
“I was introduced to this wonderful world of theatre – proper theatre rather than schoolboy stuff.
“We did a lot of Yeats plays in those years.
“We did almost the whole canon of Yeats at the Hawk’s Well – The Only Jealousy Of Emer, The Dreaming Of The Bones.
“We also performed in the Town Hall. It used to be the hub of activity for Irish dancing, music and theatre in those days before the politicos took over. “We had wonderful actors like Paddy Dooney – what a voice – Joan Fitzpatrick and Walter McDonagh. Mary McDonagh would do the choreography for the plays and Kate would do wonderful sets. “There was one in particular, and it was the set for At The Hawk’s Well. The Cat And The Moon was also stunning. It captured the magic of it all.
“We were the esoteric branch of the Sligo Drama Circle and we specialised in the plays of Yeats.
“Joe Meehan was also famous, and he had a shop next door to Shoot The Crows pub.
“I was learning my craft from people who really knew what they were about.
“John Mullaney and the late Tom Mullaney were actor brothers and had brotherly debates about how a particular line could be phrased or the name of a character.
“John is a lovely man, and he is a real Sligo legend.
“The last time I met John was in one of the lockdowns. I saw him outside Mullaney’s shop and there was nobody else on the street.
“I said, John, it is lovely to see you. He said ‘Edmund, I never thought I would see O’Connell Street this quiet’. And he recited a Yeats poem called The Second Coming.
“It was stunning in O’Connell Street and just the two of us in it. It was a magic moment.” Eddie represented a GAA club in Sligo town in the senior Scór in the recitation section and won an All-Ireland medal with Pádraig Pearse’s The Fool in Leisureland in Galway.
This was his second all-Ireland medal.
When Eddie was leaving Summerhill, he was very keen to go on and study theatre, but his parents and the late great actor Godfrey Quigley put a halt to that ambition. He said: “I loved and was entranced and mesmerised by theatre and looked up to local legends of the genre in Sligo. “Walter McDonagh and Brian Bohan and Liam McKinney casted me in his famous production of Brian Friel’s great play Translations. I played Eoin in the play.
“Brian Friel would not release the play to amateur groups and what I mean by amateur is someone who has a love for the theatre and is not mercenary. “Brian Friel was friendly with Liam, and he trusted Liam to produce his play and Liam put on a fabulous production in the Hawk’s Well Theatre.
“We had Michael Roper, Colm McBride, Mary McDonnell and Barry McKinney. It was a topclass production.
“Liam was a powerhouse and sadly he died very young.” “Manus Shields, who was a teacher with my mother, took over the mantle of production and the last play that I performed in the Hawk’s Well was directed by Manus.
“It was called Night Of January 16th and it was in 2018, before things closed down. We had fine actors in Gerry Farrell, Gerry Ryan, Ultan Burke and Ursula Smullen.”
Eddie was passionate about going to study theatre, but his parents intervened “subtly”. He said: “I did not find out this until years later. They set up a meeting with the late, great RTÉ actor Godfrey Quigley, an Abbey player and a native of Collooney. He was a far out relation of my mother.
“I was doing a play up in Summerhill with a leading role and Godfrey told me he was there.
“He told me I had no talent and that I would not go anywhere in theatre. I was crestfallen. It was a cruel thing in ways.
“Many years later, Mary Watson, my ex-elocution teacher, told me she had something to tell me. She said it had been on her mind for a long time.
“She said: ‘I was part of that conspiracy.Your parents did not want you to go into theatre and they did not see it as a good life for you. They orchestrated Godfrey to meet up and I don’t even believe he went to your play at all – I believe he went to the pub.’”
Does it still haunt Eddie? Eddie said: “To an extent. When I see some really fine actors, sometimes I think that I could have had a shot at that. “Had I gone down that
route – knowing the vagabond life that it can be, and I would have fully embraced it – I know that I would not be here doing this interview with you now. “I would be six feet under, so in that way I am not overly bitter. But I would like to have had that shot. I could have been a contender.”
Eddie was guided into law by his parents. But he was part of what Tommie Gorman called the ‘F Troop’ who failed the Leaving Cert in 1974 at Summerhill College.
Eddie said: “We were put into the library and dismissed and were not allowed to mingle with the rest of the student population in case we would contaminate them with our ideas”.
“But the funny thing was we all did very well the next year. “I did law at UCD. But I did not take part in UCD’s drama society. I was not made welcome as a culchie and walked away from it.
“But my theatrical background has been very useful to me in court, for the timing, pauses and working out a strategy in advance on what to say and what not to say.”
Eddie began working as a solicitor in Holborn Street in Sligo in 1984.
“I was the first solicitor to ever open a practice in Holborn Street. I was in close proximity to my valued and esteemed clients and friends in Forthill.” Eddie re-connected with the theatre in Sligo and began a famous collaboration with the Frankie Brannigan, a colourful actor and producer who has the swaggering walk of a king, who could entertain a nation and who is one of Sligo’s great local legends.
Eddie said: “Frankie was flambuoyant and he had a great gift of gathering people together.
“Frankie would gather a disparate group of people, and he would get them to commit themselves to a production like The Hostage by Brendan Behan in 2012 in the Hawk’s Well by the Sligo Drama Circle.”
Eddie played the colourful Monsewer, who ran a brothel. Eddie said: “Frankie started off with the Profile Theatre with a socialist ethos and put on plays by the Italian Dario Fo, so he was ahead of his time. “Frankie then focused in on Brendan Behan and Seán O’Casey. We did some fantastic productions of The Plough And The Stars.
“Sligo Drama Circle was the foundation in the town and Frankie was a key part of all this. Fran Hegarty, Brian Woods and Sally Williams were fine actors.
MEANWHILE, Eddie and Walter McDonagh founded the Yeats Theatre Company. This was in the mid-1990s. Eddie said: “I saw that Yeats plays were not being performed as much so I wanted to revive that.”
Eddie decided that it was time to go on tour as a reward for months of hard work.
He said: “I had seen over the years that people don’t realise that months can go into the production and then there is a hiatus.
“You have three nights or five nights and then it was ‘bye bye’. “I felt that if you worked hard, you should be able to get something out of it.
“So, I thought that a tour or a trip would be some reward for all that hard work.
“We did a variety of things, and we toured the US, Dubai and Europe.
“We did some interesting things, including An Evening In Black And White in Lissadell House. We put on a play by Yeats called Words Upon The Window Pane in 1997.
“It was on November 1 or Samhain, a very spiritual time. We asked our audience to dress in black and white, and they did. “Nicholas Prins was the manager of Lissadell and he was a great help to us.
“You could not get into Lissadell House at the time. “Sir Joceyln Gore Booth was still there, and even though Nicholas was helping, I was going to have to sell it to Sir Jocelyn.
“It was like being called up to the headmaster and some of my troupe – Dave McKeown, Eddie MacDermottroe and the boys – were in the van and very keen to get started.
“So, I went in, and there is a long walk towards a bay window, and who was lying stretched on the chaise longue but William Hill, the famous artist from Northern Ireland. “He is lying in a Noel Coward fashion and Sir Jocelyn was sitting to his right. I had to walk up to them like a little schoolboy. “But I was intent on getting this play performed. “I explained that we would look after everything – we would provide theatre, food, music and poetry for the night. “And then William Hill said, ‘oh Jocelyn, let the players play’. And thus the deal was sealed. “We decided we would do that play in the east wing where there is an etching on the window which inspired Yeats. Constance Gore Booth did the etching on the window and it is there to be seen today.
“Yeats, in his genius, developed it into a séance.”
“It was £20 in. We had the fires lit all over the house and candlelight and there was no electricity.
“The house was this magical place on a dark November night.
“Everyone was wearing black and white. When they came in and we gave them wine and they went to the main dining room. “The scene was set for a séance and there were people coming out of that show with the blood drained from their faces. Some fainted with fright because they really felt something was going to appear.
“We could not publicise it because of insurance and every person who bought a ticket was a member of our group.”
In the interim the house was sold and there were no more plays.
When asked if there is still potential to put on Yeats plays or indeed any plays in Lissadell, Eddie had no doubts.
He said: “Yes, and I would love to have plays there. We were like the fairies on that November night as we brought everything ourselves and everything was gone the following day.” The troupe also did a oneoff special called Yeats Under Canvas in the Peace Park.
They also made a memorable trip to the US in the company of the great flute player and raconteur Séamus Tansey.
Eddie said: “We toured America on three different occasions, and we had some great sponsors. My friends in the legal profession were very good too.
“On one occasion we hooked up with the then Mayor of Sligo Rosaleen O’Grady, who was out promoting the county in Tallahassee.
“Ronan Watters of Shoot The Crows once drove all the way from Miami to hook up with us in Apalachicola.
“A lady who lived in Dubai saw us performing in Sligo. Her name was Noreen Downey, who was a native of Sligo. She invited us over to Abu Dhabi in 2005. She organised everything for us.
“We flew out with Etihad Airways in total luxury and were put up in the Crown Plaza Hotel, which was stunning. “Noreen Downey has a real pure Sligo heart.”
Closer to home, Eddie and his troupe used to test out their plays, and one of the venues was the famous Ellen’s Pub in Maugherow.
He said: “We put on a play in Ellen’s. Everything in Ellen’s starts late and a Dutch film crews were working away.
“The local gardai come in. Of course, the Dutch crew thought this was part of the show and they start taking pictures.
“The gardaí didn’t know what to do and I explained what we were doing and when they left, we drank the night out”.
AND THAT is our Eddie. Erudite, entertaining and educational, the stories tumble out as naturally as a mountain stream. He is a natural actor, and an equally excellent storyteller, who has been a huge part of the drama scene in Sligo.
He is currently working on some short plays on Hitchcockian lines with his great friend David McKeown. Drama may have taken a hit recently, but Eddie believes it is innate in the Irish people. He said: “The spoken word is sacred in this land, and we have revered it for generations and as a people we love drama. “There is a great network of amateur drama in Ireland.
“If you get a taste for it and you love it and then you know the magic that happens when you take on a new role.
“It is not the ego, it is just a magic that takes over and that is worth its weight in gold.” Indeed!