On The Town:Memories of earlier times echoed through the rooms of a restored Georgian townhouse on Dublin's North Great George's Street at a launch party this week.
"It's quite a historic moment," said Desmond FitzGerald, the Knight of Glin, as members of the Irish Georgian Society gathered to celebrate their 50th anniversary and publication of the society's journal, Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies, Volume X.
The knight, who is the society's president, recalled that 100 years before, the first Georgian Society, predecessor to the IGS, was founded in the same house by Prof John Pentland Mahaffy, who lived there with his family for 40 years.
While this society existed, it published "the most marvellous five volumes . . . documenting Georgian Dublin in its state of decay . . . They saw that the town was disappearing slowly," explained the knight. "Thank God that they did it," he said.
Today, the society has 2,800 members, said director Donough Cahill. Its founder, Desmond Guinness, was also at the journal's launch.
Among those who attended were Angela and Malcolm Alexander, journal contributors including Nicola Figgis and Conor Lucey and Prof Andrew Mayes and his wife Elizabeth.
The owners of the restored and listed Ballysallagh House, a couple of miles northeast of Kilkenny city, Geralyn White and her husband, pharmacist Kieran White, gave a brief insight into how a house can become more than bricks and mortar, explaining that "We bought it with our hearts as opposed to our heads, you wouldn't do it otherwise".
Restoring Mahaffy House, which she bought in 1974, has been "the love of my life", explained its owner, Desiree Shortt, who uncovered 17 layers of wallpaper and had to wait for 27 sitting tenants to quit the house before she fully owned the residence.
Writer and journalist Robert O'Byrne, who was also at the launch, said he is currently "immersed in Georgiana" preparing a history of the causes, campaigns and casualties that inspire Irish Georgians both at home and abroad to try to save Ireland's built heritage.
Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies, Volume X, is published by the Irish Georgian Society. For more information contact the IGS at 01-6767053, email info@igs.ieor visit its website at www.igs.ie
The grace of Godfrey
'He has lifted another veil" and revealed a further side to himself, said journalist Nell McCafferty, when she launched The Times, The Placesby former Irish Timesjournalist Godfrey Fitzsimons in Dublin this week.
He produced the book himself as "a nice combination of charitable giving and vanity publishing", explained the modest Fitzsimons, who decided to put "a little collection of my ramblings over the years" into book form. The Times, The Placeswill be sold in Oxfam Ireland shops around the country over the coming weeks to help raise money for the overseas charity.
"It brought it all back to me," said McCafferty, who knew Fitzsimons throughout their respective careers from the early 1970s onwards. "Godfrey does the dance of the seven veils. You just keep discovering things you didn't know about him," she said. "I didn't know he was such a world traveller," she added. Being a Catholic from Derry, unlike Fitzsimons, who is a Protestant from Ballymena, she continued: "I was always intrigued by him . . . There was always a touch of the David Nivens about him," smiling across at the distinguished-looking writer. She said she has discovered over the years that "there's a lot more to this fellow than he's letting on . . . He's smooth, not quite funky, but he's cool."
"He was always a beautiful writer with a great sense of humour and with a fantastic command of very good American music," said fellow journalist, former colleague and member of the Irish Executive Council of the National Union of Journalists, Mary Maher.
Other former colleagues at the launch included the Press Ombudsman, Prof John Horgan; the writer and former Irish Times news editor Eugene McEldowney; journalist and former publisher of The Skipper Arthur Reynolds; and former Irish Times political correspondent Denis Coghlan.
Others who came along included Sheamus Smith, the former film censor; novelist Rose Doyle; and members of Oxfam Ireland Paul Dunphy, Stephanie Casey and Sheila Powers.
The Times, The Placesby Godfrey Fitzsimons is published by the author to be sold in aid of Oxfam Ireland
An August adaptation
There was great excitement on the opening night of Miss Julieby August Strindberg in a new version by poet and playwright Frank McGuinness at the Project in Dublin. The presence of the writer himself in the audience for the performance added to the heightened sense of occasion.
Guests in the auditorium included playwright Tom Murphy, Gate director Michael Colgan, theatre producer Maura Kiely and architect Denis Looby.
McGuinness "has been incredibly faithful" to the text, "but he has brought a beautiful fluid language to it, that is both very raw and very fluid", said the play's director, Michael Barker-Caven.
"Frank brings out the deep imagination of these people. He understands that these people imagine themselves into a state of reverie, a state of dreams, where they think they can become the thing they've always dreamed of," he said. For Miss Julie, her dream "is to fall. and she thinks this is a beautiful thing. For him, it's to rise up, which for him is going to be a unique thing, but what they discover is that life is much more dangerous."
McGuinness's version "is very modern, very alive and very fresh," said its producer, Anne Clarke, after the play's opening performance. "I think it's a joy for the actors to play," she said, explaining that she had wanted to do a production of Miss Julie for years because "there's so much in it, sex and power and class. It's a heady cocktail, and there are just fantastic parts for actors."
Other guests at the opening included RTÉ's Kevin Reynolds and Lorelei Harris, actors Nick Dunning, Gerard McSorley and Bryan Murray, Orlaith McBride of the National Youth Theatre and Eugene Downes, chief executive of Culture Ireland, who is off to Los Angeles next to co-host a pre-Oscar bash in the Mondrian Hotel for the Irish film industry. And Fearghus Ó Conchúir, Dublin City Council's dance artist in residence, who was also at the opening, is off to China next month to perform in Beijing as part of an Irish Arts Festival in the Olympic city.
Landmark Productions' Miss Julieis at the Project Arts Centre until March 1
In the company of wolves
There was no fear. The idea of wolves waiting to eat you up didn't really scare anyone this week at the Ark, Dublin's cultural centre for children, except this writer, perhaps. "There will be the odd screech of pleasure as well as terror," said a delighted Ronan Smith, chairman of the Ark, before he went in for the opening performance of Beware of the Storybook Wolvesby Lauren Child, in a stage adaptation by Tom Swift. "You have to get that frisson, you have to get that close to fear," said Smith, young people milling around, all anxious for the show to begin. The lights were low and the music was spooky but Meadbh O'Mahony (four) had her uncle Brian Sheehan, director of the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network, to protect her, as well as her mother, Deirdre O'Mahony and her sister, Aoife O'Mahony (six). "We've loads of Lauren Child books," added Aoife. Lydia Cook (seven) was also well versed in Child's work. "I've read nearly all the Charlie and Lola books," she said.
Then the play began and the wolves came out, all hairy and licking their teeth, but once the little boy, who is played by Stephen Swift, got to know them, they weren't too bad really. Afterwards, Lydia's mother, Lisa Cook, said it was great and that the use of different media in the show, including animation and film, was "really clever".
"I really liked most of it," said Peter Newington (11) afterwards. "Especially when they were copying Amy Winehouse," he said. "The wolves were very good and the ball was quite funny," added his brother Jake Newington (six).
"It was one of the best performances I ever saw for children," said Jackie Bourke, writer and yoga teacher, who had brought her two young sons, Móbhí (five) and Cuán (seven). "It was really, really funny but it had layers to it," she said. "There was a lot going on. It's so much of what my children's worlds are about today, they immediately copped on. It really was aimed at the children, but the adults enjoyed it too."
Be ware of the Storybook Wolvescontinues at the Ark, Temple Bar, Dublin, until March 16