Queen's Theatre, Dublin

Last updated

Queen's Theatre, Dublin
Adelphi Theatre
Adelphi Theatre Dublin.jpg
Adelphi Theatre (1829–1844)
Queen's Theatre, Dublin
Address Pearse Street
Dublin 2
Ireland
Type patent theatre
Construction
Opened1829
Closed1969
Rebuilt1909

The Queen's Theatre, Dublin, located in Pearse Street was originally built in 1829 as the Adelphi Theatre. [1] This building was demolished in 1844 and rebuilt. It reopened that same year as the Queens Royal Theatre, [2] the new owner having been granted a Royal Patent to operate as a patent theatre. The theatre quickly became known as simply the Queen's.

Contents

It was most famous in the 20th century as the home of the Happy Gang, [3] a troupe of comics, singers and musicians including Danny Cummins, Jimmy Harvey, Mick Eustace and Cecil Nash. The regular members of the "gang" took part in sketches as required, but in addition each had to be a solo performer in his own right.

Suspected political associations

During the War of Independence, popular [4] Queen's Theatre manager John Lawrence Christopher "Jack" Sullivan made headlines across Ireland when he was arrested by the military in the early hours of Thursday, 14 October 1920 [5] on suspicion of Sinn Fein membership in the weeks leading up to Bloody Sunday.

Sullivan had been assistant manager for many years but only weeks earlier had replaced Charlie Wright as manager. [6]

The British military broke open the back door of his home at 28 Lower Mount St sometime after 1am. [7]

Upholstered chairs were ripped open, pictures dismantled, and doors were torn off two cabinets, and papers examined in a 'long thorough search' [8] of Sullivan's home, in the dark, as the gas meter was broken. [7]

The military surrounded and raided houses number 28, 29, and 30, which belonged to Sullivan's mother-in-law Margaret O'Mara nee Cronan. [7]

Sullivan was taken onto Lower Mount St in his night attire and questioned about Sinn Fein battalion membership, along with a Queen's actor who rented a room upstairs, J Clancy. [7]

Sullivan, and a 17-year-old student lodger named Mr Herriott from Nenagh at number 29, was arrested under the defence of the realm regulations by General Boyd [9] and taken to Ship St Barracks at Dublin Castle. [7]

It is believed he was released without charge the following day.

Neither had any connection with politics, 'and their arrests have occasioned much surprise'. [8]

A month later, six doors up, British Army Intelligence Officer Lieutenant Henry Angliss (cover name 'Patrick McMahon',) was shot by the IRA at 22 Lower Mount Street on Bloody Sunday. [10]

The military returned to number 30 the following Monday night and arrested Sullivan's brother-in-law William Frances O'Mara, but it's not believed any charges were laid. [11]

Sullivan resigned in 1924 to pursue other theatrical enterprises. [12]

Union controversy

Eleven men were brought before the Dublin District Court and bound to six months of good behaviour, and banned from picketing the Queens Theatre, after they were charged with illegal picketing in late 1924. [13]

It was a muscle-flexing exercise by trade unionist James Larkin and his new Worker's Union of Ireland, following the theatre's ownership change the previous week. [14]

Larkin had just been released from Sing Sing and had returned to Ireland the previous year, and had fallen out of favour with his former union, the ITGWU.

Final days

The Abbey Theatre took over the building after the Abbey fire of 1951 and remained until July 1966. The lease was then put up for sale. Trinity College Dublin were the ground landlords, but the Department of Education refused to grant them the funds to purchase the building. The lease was purchased by Herbert McNally, who was involved in the cinema business. He attempted to secure planning permission to build a office block, and when this was refused he sold it to George Colley. [3] The theatre closed in 1969 and was demolished in 1975.

The new building, Áras An Phiarsaigh, was built on the site. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bloody Sunday (1920)</span> Day of violence in Dublin, Ireland

Bloody Sunday was a day of violence in Dublin on 21 November 1920, during the Irish War of Independence. More than 30 people were killed or fatally wounded.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irish Citizen Army</span> Former group of trained trade union volunteers from the Irish Transport and General Workers Union

The Irish Citizen Army, or ICA, was a small paramilitary group of trained trade union volunteers from the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (ITGWU) established in Dublin for the defence of workers' demonstrations from the Dublin Metropolitan Police. It was formed by James Larkin, James Connolly and Jack White on 23 November 1913. Other prominent members included Seán O'Casey, Constance Markievicz, Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, P. T. Daly and Kit Poole. In 1916, it took part in the Easter Rising, an armed insurrection aimed at ending British rule in Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1921 Irish elections</span>

The 1921 Irish elections took place in Ireland on 24 May 1921 to elect members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland and the House of Commons of Southern Ireland. These legislatures had been established by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, which granted Home Rule to a partitioned Ireland within the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darrell Figgis</span> Irish politician and writer (1882–1925)

Darrell Edmund Figgis was an Irish writer, Sinn Féin activist and independent parliamentarian in the Irish Free State.

The Cairo Gang was a group of British military intelligence agents who were sent to Dublin during the Irish War of Independence to identify prominent members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) with, according to information gathered by the IRA Intelligence Department (IRAID), the intention of disrupting the IRA by assassination. Originally commanded by British Army General Gerald Boyd, they were known officially as the Dublin District Special Branch (DDSB) and also as D Branch.

The Limerick Soviet was one of a number of self-declared Irish soviets that were formed around Ireland circa 1919. The Limerick Soviet existed for a two-week period from 14 to 27 April 1919. At the beginning of the Irish War of Independence, a general strike was organised by the Limerick Trades and Labour Council, as a protest against the British Army's declaration of a "Special Military Area" under the Defence of the Realm Act, which covered most of Limerick city and a part of the county. The soviet ran the city for the period, printed its own money and organised the supply of food. The Limerick Soviet was one of a number of Irish soviets declared between 1919 and 1923.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret Buckley</span> Irish politician

Margaret Buckley was an Irish republican and president of Sinn Féin from 1937 to 1950. She was the first female leader of Sinn Féin and was the first Irishwoman to lead a political party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dublin Housing Action Committee</span> 1960s protest group in Ireland

The Dublin Housing Action Committee (DHAC) was a 1960s protest group formed in response to housing shortages in Dublin, Ireland's capital city. It quickly moved to direct action and successfully squatted buildings to oppose redevelopment plans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James O'Mara</span> Irish politician (1873–1948)

James O'Mara was an Irish businessman and politician who became a nationalist leader and key member of the revolutionary First Dáil. As an MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, he introduced the bill which made Saint Patrick's Day a national holiday in Ireland in 1903. He was one of the few politicians to have served both as member in the House of Commons and in Dáil Éireann.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael O'Flanagan</span> Roman Catholic priest and Irish scholar (1876–1942)

Michael O'Flanagan was a Roman Catholic priest, Irish language scholar, inventor and historian. He was a popular, socialist Irish republican; "a vice-president of the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society, he was a proponent of land redistribution." He was Gaelic League envoy to the United States from 1910 to 1912, and he supported the striking dockers in Sligo in 1913.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Colivet</span> Irish politician (1882–1955)

Michael Patrick Colivet was an Irish Sinn Féin politician. He was Commander of the Irish Volunteers in Limerick during the 1916 Easter Rising, and was elected to the First Dáil.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Hunter (Irish politician)</span> Irish politician

Thomas Cornelius Hunter was a militant Irish republican. He was a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), Sinn Féin, the Irish Volunteers, was twice elected to the Irish parliament, Dáil Éireann, and fought against the forces of the Irish Free State as a member of the Irish Republican Army during the Irish Civil War. While not widely known today, he was present at or directly involved in several major incidents during the struggle for Irish independence from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1920 Irish local elections</span> Local authority elections in Ireland

Elections were held in January and June 1920 for the various county and district councils of Ireland. The elections were organised by the Dublin Castle administration under the law of the then United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (UK), and held while the Irish War of Independence was pitting UK forces against those of the Irish Republic proclaimed in 1919 by the First Dáil. Elections were held in two stages: borough and urban district councils in January; and county and rural district councils in June. Sinn Féin, which had established the First Dáil, won control of many of the councils, which subsequently broke contact with Dublin Castle's Local Government Board for Ireland and instead recognised the republican Department of Local Government. The election results provide historians with a barometer of public opinion in what would be the last elections administered on an all-island basis: the Government of Ireland Act 1920 passed at the end of the year effected the partition of Ireland from 1921, though the elections for the two home rule Parliaments envisaged by it were held on the same day; no further elections would be held simultaneously across the island of Ireland until 1979, when representatives of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland to the European Parliament were elected. The next local elections were held in 1924 in Northern Ireland and in 1925 in the Irish Free State.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">State visit by Elizabeth II to the Republic of Ireland</span> 2011 visit by the British monarch

Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and her husband Prince Philip made a state visit to Ireland from 17 to 20 May 2011, at the invitation of the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese. It was the first visit by a reigning British monarch to the area that is now the Republic of Ireland since the 1911 tour by Elizabeth's grandfather King George V, when the entire island of Ireland was still part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

George J. Nesbitt was an Irish businessman and Free State senator from Kimmage, Dublin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">P. T. Daly</span> Irish trade unionist and politician (1870-1943)

Patrick Thomas Daly, known as P. T. Daly was an Irish trade unionist and politician.

Michael Carolan was an Irish republican activist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alice Cashel</span> Irish nationalist

Alice Mary Cashel was an Irish nationalist, County Councillor and judge. She was a founding member, with Annie McSwiney, of the Cork Cumann na mBan.

William Conway was born in Ballycrenode, County Tipperary in 1902. He was the son of Timothy and Anastasia Conway and brother to 6 siblings, 5 brothers and 1 sister. William Conway was a member of the Irish Republican Army and among the founders of the Young Ireland Hurling Club.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Dillon (chemist)</span> Irish chemist and nationalist

Thomas Dillon was an Irish chemist and nationalist.

References

  1. ↑ Finegan, John (1994). "Dublin's Lost Theatres". Dublin Historical Record. 47 (1): 96.
  2. ↑ Kerins, Des. "The Queen's Theatre". arthurlloyd.co.uk. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 McDonald, Frank (1985). The destruction of Dublin. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan. pp. 44–45. ISBN   0-7171-1386-8. OCLC   60079186.
  4. ↑ "Popular theatre manager resigns". Evening Herald. 1924 [13 December 1924]. p. 6.
  5. ↑ "Theatre manager arrested". Belfast Newsletter. 1920 [15 October 1920]. p. 8.
  6. ↑ "Music and drama notes". Evening Herald. 1920 [04 September 1920].
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 "Queens theatre manager and others arrested". Irish Independent. 15 October 1920. p. 6.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  8. 1 2 "Military take theatre manager". Irish Examiner. 15 October 1920. p. 5.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  9. ↑ Ireland, prison registers 1790-1924, image 752
  10. ↑ "Lt Henry James Angliss". British Intelligence in Ireland. 19 December 2022. Archived from the original on 19 December 2022. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  11. ↑ "Dublin raids". Evening Herald. 1920 [Tuesday, November 23, 1920]. p. 1.
  12. ↑ "Popular manager resigns". Evening Herald. p. 2.
  13. ↑ "Pickets in theatre put under rule of bail". Irish Independent. p. 7.
  14. ↑ "Queens theatre reopening". Sunday Independent. 1924 [23 November 1924]. p. 2.

53°20′42″N6°15′17″W / 53.344938°N 6.254622°W / 53.344938; -6.254622

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.