NUIG dedicates new arts wing to late Frank Bailey, member of Dramsoc

THE “VISIONARY” artistic spirit of a late and leading member of NUI Galway’s Dramsoc was recalled at the weekend when the university opened its new €6 million arts wing and cultural centre.

Macnas, the Druid Theatre and Frankie Gavin were among performers marking the opening of the Sciathán Bailey Allen, which has been named after the late Frank J Bailey.

Bailey, who was born in Galway in 1938, graduated from the university in 1962 with an arts degree. He was an active member of the university’s dramatic society (Dramsoc). He is said to have “infused the society with a visionary spirit” that led to the university’s association with experimental and innovative drama.

Bailey became actor and producer with Raidio Éireann and subsequently established his own company, the Celtic Arts Theatre, while also producing dramas for the Olympia, Gaiety and Abbey in Dublin.

The Irish Times'sIrishman's Diary recorded in 1971 how he was friendly with actor Peter O'Toole and had plans to convert an old railway station in Co Galway into a "Little Theatre". Bailey's last production, JM Synge's Riders to the Sea, was staged in Galway in 1971 just a year before his own sudden death.

Bailey’s late mother, Angela Allen, who ran the Imperial Hotel in Galway, was one of two major donors to the new wing, along with Atlantic Philanthropies.

“Angela had left a bequest, as she wanted to honour her son who died prematurely,” Galway University Foundation chief executive Tom Joyce said.

A voluntary students’ levy also helped to pay for the project, which involved conversion of the existing Áras na Mac Léinn into an auditorium seating 1,400, and rehearsal and teaching rooms.

“It will facilitate the university as a prime theatre space to be used by students for performance as well as by the university for conferrings and other events,” Mr Joyce said.

Dorothy Pilkington, niece of the late Angela Allen, represented her family at the event, which was marked with an excerpt from the DruidSynge production of The Playboy of the Western World, music by tenor David O’Leary, Frankie Gavin, the NUI Galway Orchestra and a performance by Macnas.

Master of ceremonies was Dan Colley, former auditor of the university’s literary and debating society and a grandson of the late Fianna Fáil politician, George Colley.