Siobhán Honours Dad as Group Comes Full Circle

Siobhán Dooney will be remembering her dear father Paddy as she takes part in the Sligo Drama Circle’s 50th anniversary celebrations, which begin in the Hawk’s Well today, Tuesday. Paddy Dooney was a founder member of the Circle, and acted in its first production, Thy Dear Father, which ran at Sligo Town Hall from November 18-20, 1956. Fittingly, Siobhan will play the part of Vi in the production of The Memory of Water by Shelagh Stephenson, which kicks off the celebrations today.

Dooney was one of an extremely talented group of actors who were members of the Circle in the early years. “It was a golden age,” Siobhan explains, and lists some of her father’s peers, including such famous names as Eddie McDermottroe, Walter McDonagh and Eddie Fitzpatrick. Such was their success that she has a bracelet made from medals won by her father on the circuit. She remembers that he was sought out by Garry Hynes to play Michael James in an early-1980s production of The Playboy of the Western World that enjoyed great success in London and New York, before going on to do radio theatre with the BBC. With such a prominent father, and a mother also a member of the Circle, it is hardly surprising that Siobhan has been involved in drama most of her life.

“I was entered into the Drama Circle books the day I was born,” she laughs. Now a lecturer in IT Sligo, she has taken part in Drama Circle plays since her late teens, and has also been involved in drama and film throughout the country – Alan Stanford workshops in Trinity College where she studied, the Focus Theatre on Pembroke Street also in Dublin, and the award-wining Cathal Black film Korea, as well as outings with local production companies Everyman and the Blue Raincoat. There will be other strong connections with the founding generation as the Circle celebrates its half-century. Members of the cast from th earliest performances are expected to attend the gala night on Friday, June 23, where there will also be an exhibition of 50 years of Drama Circle memorabilia and a wine reception.

The Memory of Water, directed by Ursula Smullen, and also starring Ann Marie Byrne, Muireann Toibin, Averyl Dooher and Liam Cunningham, will run in the Hawk’s Well from June 20-24, and proceeds from Thursday’s performance will go towards St Edward’s National School.

from The Sligo Weekender, June 20th, 2006, by Conor Quinn