Summer Theatre In Sligo

Sir, As Chairman of Sligo Drama Circle I was particularly interested in your second leader of August 20th when you expressed surprise at the lack of cultural entertainment for summer visitors by the drama movement in rural Ireland. I am not certain whether or not the larger towns such as Sligo are included by you in “rural” Ireland , but Sligo is one centre where we have endeavoured to provide theatre for both visitors and locals during the summer months over the last number of years. This year, under the general title of “Summer Theatre Seventy-Three”, officially opened by Brian Friel on June 26th, we have been mounting plays at least twice weekly in Sligo’s Town Hall, and will continue to do so until September 6th.

Here is our programme for August: (1) “Arms and the Man” (Shaw) August 2nd, 8th; (2) “On Baile’s Strand” and “The Cat and the Moon” (Yeats) August 7th, 9th, 12th; (3) “Step-in-the-Hollow” (Donagh Mc Donagh) August 18th, 20th, 28th, 30th; and (4) “The Country Boy” (John Murphy) August 22nd, 24th. In addition to the variety of plays we offer, we also pride ourselves on the standard achieved. As you can see from the enclosed brochure, whatever profits are made from our summer theatre go into a fund to provide Sligo with a permanent, well-equipped theatre. The difficulties you list in your editorial are all very real ones and are not easily surmounted. We believe, however, that we have done so, and hope that we will be able to increase our programme from year to year. Our major difficulty at the moment is to attract local people in sufficient numbers as we estimate that almost 80% of our audiences are visitors to the town. This year we had our best season ever from the point of view of numbers attending our shows. We would like to record that one centre, at least, is not guilty of the lack of theatrical entertainment for summer visitors you so rightly highlight in your editorial.

A Letter to the Editor from Lionel Gallagher, The Evening Herald, August 25th, 1973