In praise of Festival volunteer of the year Peter Hussey

Whites Hotel in Wexford opened its doors to the public in 1779, after a Mr White, who lived on the Main Street, bought the neighbouring houses and opened a coaching inn. A few years later patrons of the hotel looked out the windows of the inn and saw pikemen marching past the hotel during the 1798 rebellion.

When Wexford Opera Festival started in 1951, Whites hotel was involved with the Festival from the beginning as the owner of Whites hotel, Eugene McCarthy, was also one of the founder members of the Opera Festival, alongside Dr Tom Walsh, Seamus O’Dwyer, Dr Jim Liddy, and Dr Des Ffrench.

When Peter Hussey started as manager in Whites Hotel in November 1977, he wondered what all the fuss was about because he took up duty on the Monday morning immediately after the opera festival ended. The hotel was eerily quiet and he wondered whether he had made the right decision in coming to Wexford. He quickly discovered when bookings started to come in for the following year‘s festival how busy the opera festival would keep him for the next 40 years, both as the manager of Whites hotel, and, after he retired, as a volunteer worker for the festival.

The link between the hotel and the Festival was very strong. As well as opera goers staying in the hotel, the principal singers also stayed there, and the Festival’s opera scenes and piano recitals, key parts of the Festival, all took place in Whites Hotel. It was the place for the Festival attendees to congregate. Peter recalls the opening night of the Festival in 1978, his first full Festival as manager in Whites, when, as the opera ended, the rain poured from the heavens. Most of the audience ran directly from the Theatre Royal to Whites Hotel for shelter and sustenance. One opera patron, a well known local solicitor, arrived at Whites with a Garda traffic cone on his head for protection from the rain, closely followed by two young GardaÍ who had taken umbrage at the theft of said traffic cone. When they realised that it was someone well known to them from his many professional appearances at the Courthouse they were happy not to add another courtroom appearance to his tally.

Bernard Levin, the English journalist, author and broadcaster who was a great friend of Wexford Festival visited Whites Hotel every year. On one occasion after a post-opera party he returned to the hotel in the early hours ravenously hungry and on being told that there was no chef on duty went to the hotel kitchen and fried himself some bacon and eggs. This event was remembered many years later at a dinner in Whites hosted by Guinness where Peter presented him with a medal for his breakfast skills.

Peter retired in 1995 but returned to Whites for the duration of the Festival in 1996. He has volunteered with the Festival in a number of roles – as a driver, in hospitality, as front of house manager, and as an Opera House tour guide. Many will also know Peter’s wife Marie from her long service in various roles in hospitality and behind the bar in the Opera House.

One night, when working front of house, Peter recalls that a group of people arrived late for the opera. As is customary they were not allowed into the auditorium until the interval. They were ushered into a guest room where they could watch the opera on a TV monitor and they were given some complimentary champagne to placate them. After a while they came out from the room quite puzzled and wondering why none of the music sounded familiar. It transpired that they had bought tickets for My Fair Lady in the Dún Mhuire Theatre!

As a volunteer driver Peter drove many celebrities to and from Dublin airport. In 2007 he went to the airport to collect Rory Bremner the Scottish impressionist and comedian, noted for his work in political satire and his impressions of British public figures. Rory had translated the libretto for Der Silbersee, one of the three operas that year. After leaving the airport, Rory did a long interview with RTÉ from the back of the car before they became stuck in a horrendous traffic jam near Arklow following a collision on the motorway.

They spent a considerable time waiting at the roadside chatting to other motorists, some of whom recognised him, and because he had missed meals while travelling, one of the other motorists even managed to find a banana to keep him going until he got to Wexford! Bremner hadn’t heard about the formal dress code at the opera so a dress suit had to be hurriedly arranged by telephone from the car en route also. They eventually managed to divert off the motorway onto the coast road and made it to Wexford with just enough time for Bremner to change into his rented suit and go directly to the opera, which was taking place at Johnstown Castle that year, as the new Opera House was under construction at the time.

After more than 40 years associated with Wexford Festival Peter is still actively involved in the community, not only with the Festival but also with the Wexford Lions Club. Peter was honoured during the 2023 Festival to receive the accolade of Wexford Festival Opera Volunteer of the Year, an honour richly deserved.

Eamon Tierney is a volunteer with Wexford Festival Opera.