Mary O'Malley (director)

Mary O'Malley (née Hickey 28 July 1918 Mallow, County Cork – 22 April 2006 Booterstown, County Dublin) was an Irish theatre director and, with her husband Pearse, co-founder of Belfast's Lyric Players Theatre, now more usually known as the Lyric Theatre, Belfast.[1]

This article is about the stage director. For other uses, see Mary O'Malley.

Mary O'Malley
Born(1918-07-28)July 28, 1918
Mallow, County Cork, Ireland
DiedApril 22, 2006(2006-04-22) (aged 87)
Booterstown, County Dublin, Ireland
NationalityIrish
OccupationTheatre director

Life

On 14 September 1947, Mary married Armagh-born doctor Pearse O’Malley in University Church, Dublin and soon afterwards moved to Belfast.[2]

She was elected to Belfast Corporation in May 1952, as an Irish Labour Party councillor for the Smithfield ward.

O'Malley was appointed as an honorary member of the Ulster Society of Women Artists in 1958.[3] In 1959, she founded Threshold literary magazine.[1][4][5]

In March 1951, she started Belfast’s Lyric Players Theatre, initially at Ulsterville House[6] and, the following year, in the former stables at the back of her home in Derryvolgie Avenue, off the Malone Road.[1]

In October 1968 a new, purpose-built Lyric Theatre opened on Ridgeway Street.[7][8] The date of the official opening was chosen by O'Malley as an homage to US President John F. Kennedy's Amherst address, 26 October 1963, in which he affirmed the role of the artist in society.[9]

In 1976, she retired to Wicklow.[2] Her autobiography, Never Shake Hands with the Devil, was published in 1990.

The Lyric Players Theatre archives are held at NUI Galway.[10]

References
  1. Adams, Bernard (29 April 2006). "Mary O'Malley". The Independent. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  2. Henry, Lee (6 February 2008). "Mary O'Malley Changed the NI Stage". Culture Northern Ireland. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  3. "Women artists to show own works". Belfast Telegraph. 10 December 1958. p. 8. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  4. Frank Shovlin (2003). The Irish literary periodical, 1923–1958. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-926739-2.
  5. "The Lyric Lives Heritage Project - Help us with our collection". Archived from the original on 20 February 2009. Retrieved 23 May 2009.
  6. Grene, Nicholas; Morash, Chris (2016). The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish Theatre. Oxford University Press.
  7. Christopher Murray (1997). Twentieth-century Irish drama. Manchester University Press ND. ISBN 978-0-7190-4157-0.
  8. "The Lyric Lives Heritage Project - Quotes". Archived from the original on 20 February 2009. Retrieved 23 May 2009.
  9. Coyle, Jane (29 October 2018). "The Lyric Theatre at 50: a cultural bridge in a divided city". The Irish Times. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  10. "Finding Aid : Lyric Players Theatre collection, 1944-2001 : Irish Literary Collections". Archived from the original on 19 June 2010. Retrieved 23 May 2009.
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