I am very glad to see that more than one of our Dublin old stagers - in several senses - are publishing their reminiscences. Too much of Dublin's history, and especially Dublin theatrical history, has died in recent years with the passing of men who cut a figure in our city, and were in possession of interesting information that has never been printed and is now beyond recovery.
One of these old stagers who is still hale and hearty is Mr Martin Murphy, for many years carpenter at the Gaiety, and intimate friend of Count Casimir Markievicz and scores of others who helped to give Dublin its distinctive character in the years before the last great war. Mr Murphy himself is part of Mr Sean O Faolain's biography of Countess Markievicz, and I am glad to see now that he has been recalling some of his memories in a new Dublin monthly.
I am afraid that, like Homer, Mr Murphy sometimes nods. His friend, Judge Wyse-Power, he'll find, has not yet passed out of the land of the living; and he would do well to check up on Keating as author of "Thou are not conquered yet, dear land."
But I have found Mr Murphy's reminiscences very interesting.
The Irish Times, September 11th, 1940.