Phoenix Productions are this year celebrating their 15th Birthday. Founded initially in 1998 to harness the unbelievable vocal & musical talent emerging amongst the youth of Thurles, this non-profit organization, through the use of professionals in choreography & musical direction, have succeeded in staging one musical production every year since its conception.
Funded only by the sale of tickets, an Arts Council Grant latter administered by Tipperary North County Council and local sponsorship, the Phoenix Productions company will this year undertake its most tasking production yet, the tragic love story that is the 1986 musical “The Phantom of the Opera,” with music by Tipperary resident Baron Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Charles Hart. (Some lyrics influenced by Jim Steinman, Alan Jay Lerner & Richard Stilgoe.)
Just this year the rights to perform “The Phantom of the Opera” were released to non-professional groups for the very first time.
To give you just a taste of what is to come, listen to the gifted voices of Michael Ball and Sierra Boggess, as they perform possibly one of the best known and loved songs from this amazing musical, hereunder entitled “All I ask of you.” By the way, on Piano for this video performance is composer and impresario of musical theatre, himself, Baron Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Thurles Cast:
Sonny Dwyer (Phantom Erik,); Lucy Tobin (Christine Daaé,); Paul Browne (Raoul, Viscount de Chagny,); Róisín Heenan (Carlotta Giudicelli,); Andrew Whelan (Monsieur Firmin,); Ryan Grace (Monsieur André ), Stephanie Browne (Madame Giry ), Graham Maher (Ubaldo Piangi ), Emily Murphy (Meg Giry ) and Nathan Carroll (Joseph Buquet ).
Corps de Ballet:
Emily Murphy, Aoife Phelan, Irene Slattery, Ann Marie O’ Dwyer, Annie Blake and Billie Kelly.
Production Team:
Gerard O’ Brien (Producer,); Aisling Doyle (Director/Choreographer,); David Wray (Musical Director,); John O’ Donoghue (Set Design,) and Gerry Taylor (Lighting Design,).
Tickets: Cost €15, €20, Concession: €12 (Tickets will go on Sale on July 27th next at West Gate, Thurles, in the shop formally occupied by ‘Blake’s Butchers,’ and more recently ‘Rings and Things.’).
This is one show for music lovers which should not to be missed, so do make arrangements to view the splendour of a Paris Opera House here in the Premier Hall, Thurles and meet face to face a Phantom, shamed by his physical appearance and feared by all. But also experience the strong passion that this Phantom holds for his beautiful protégée Christine Daaé, that despite this physical affliction, even her heart cannot resist.
So “No more talk of darkness,” folks and for at least one night, do come listen to “The music of the night,” here in Thurles, running from August 7th to August 10th 2013.
Tipperary Ladies Gaelic Football Association have been successful in their attempt to break the World Record for the ‘Largest Football Mosaic’ at the Moyle Rovers GAA Grounds in Clonmel, Co Tipperary on Saturday July 6th last.
The world record attempt had the dual aim of promoting the sport in Tipperary while also raising funds towards the continued development of Ladies Football, throughout the county.
Local engineer, Mr Will McGarry, was responsible for designing the mosaic used, which formed & included the words ‘The Horse and Jockey,’ latter a local hotel here on the outskirts of Thurles & the generous team sponsor for the Tipperary Intermediate Ladies Football Team.
The final design was 22.2 metres wide and 3.4 metres high, covering approx 76 m². The completed design consisted of 1530 footballs in Tipperary’s famous blue and gold colours.
There were over 300 people in attendance and both young and old got a chance to lay a ball and enjoy the great family occasion generated by this event.
Six degrees of separation is the theory that everyone and everything is six or fewer steps away, but no need of six degrees when we take a look at this man. He does not appear in any list of Thurles Town’s most notable ancestors as yet, but was born in Chicago, Illinois on November 11th, 1909 and died on July 11th, 1973, just 40 years ago this month.
He stood 6ft-4in in height and despite being an American actor who constantly played the screen parts of hardened cops and ruthless villains, the kind of characters that in real life he found totally despicable, he would remain until his death from lung cancer in New York City in 1973 aged just 63 years, a confirmed pacifist.
He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1932, having held the school’s heavyweight boxing title during all four years of his attendance, to begin employment as a stoker on a ship, a WPA worker, and later a ranch hand in Montana.
He was a joint founder of “The Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy’s Hollywood Chapter.” He served in the cultural division of the Committee to Defend Martin Luther King and together with Bill Cosby, Robert Culp, Sidney Poitier, and other actors, he helped organize the short-lived “Artists Help All Blacks,” and was an outright opponent of McCarthyism. Despite his earlier military service in the United States Marine Corps, he fully supported civil rights issues in America.
He will be possibly also remembered for subletting his apartment in Manhattan, ‘The Dakota,’ at 72nd & Central Park West, to John Lennon and Yoko Ono. It would be here that at around 10:50 pm on December 8th 1980, as John Lennon returned to this same New York apartment, that the madman Mark David Chapman would shoot Lennon in the back four times, as the latter entered this building.
Yes, you have probably guessed it by now, I speak of Robert (Bushnell,) Ryan, famous American actor extraordinary, who played lead roles in more than 60 films and whose grandmother (Maiden Name Johanna Ryan,) and grandfather John came originally from our town of Thurles, both emigrating to America just after the Civil War sometime in the end of the 1860’s.
This same Thurles born grandfather, John Ryan, became a carpenter who quickly founded a boat yard, his aim to supply boats for the Illinois and Michigan Canal, latter which ran through Lockport. His grandfather, at some time during these years, was superintendent of that section of the Canal, thus holding a position of some importance in his small adopted town.
The township was largely Irish and Catholic and these Ryan’s were a devout Catholic family. This devout faith did not however prohibit Robert Ryan’s father, Timothy Aloysius Ryan, from marrying a Protestant girl, one Mabel Bushnell. The Ryan’s, by all the standards of then civilized society, were a very fine family, hard working, devout, honourable, and handsome. While not showing intellectual or artistic merit, they are described by Robert himself, as conventional in both their private and public lives.
Actor Robert Ryan, as already stated, was born in Chicago, Illinois, the first born child of Timothy and his wife Mabel Bushnell Ryan. He himself would go on to marry Jessica Cadwalader, a Quaker, on March 11th 1939 and father two sons, Cheyney, a research fellow at Oxford University and a Professor of Philosophy and Law at the University of Oregon, and Timothy (“Tim” named after his father,) and one daughter, Lisa.
His film career which began in 1940 with “Ghost Breakers,” and ended with “The Iceman Cometh,” in 1973, also included the silver screen greats; Crossfire(1947); as Nick Bradley in Born to Be Bad (1950); On Dangerous Ground (1951); as Howard Wilton in Beware My Lovely (1952); as Cass Silver in The Proud Ones (1956); Battle of the Bulge (1965); The Professionals (1966) which obtained three Academy Award nominations; The Dirty Dozen (1967); as Lieutenant General Carson in Anzio (1968); The Wild Bunch (1969); and of course The Outfit (1973).
Maybe Thurles Town Council should unveil a plaque to the memory of his grandparents during “The Ryan Gathering,” to be held here in Thurles, Co.Tipperary, on the weekend of August 23rd -25th 2013, what do you our readers think?
A new Visitor Information Point has opened, this week, providing all of the information visitors will need to make their stay in the Upperchurch and Drombane area of North Tipperary, a memorable one.
Upperchurch (Irish: an Teampall Uachtarach, meaning “The Upper Church”,) is a small village here in North Tipperary, Ireland and lies in the Slievefelin Hills, just off the R503 regional road between Thurles and Limerick city.
This new information point, situated close to one of Ireland’s most popular hill walking venues, will now provide maps on the areas three world famous Loop Walks, together with sequential up to date data on Homestead/Genealogy regarding the civil parishes of Upperchurch, Templebeg and Moyaliff, details on Gathering events and Walking Weekends taking place this November.
Here also expect to find full details and special offers on all local accommodation providers, bars, restaurants and where to avail of general “Ceol agus Craic,” (Irish: Music and Fun).
This Visitor Information Point can be now contacted; Tel: 00353 (0)87-6076838 or E-mail: upperrural@gmail.com
Yes it’s been confirmed, Ireland’s greatest story tellers “The Wolfe Tones,” are to headline the Ryan Gathering here in Thurles in August.
Arguably the World’s most popular folk and ballad group ever, The Wolfe Tones will be appearing live in the home of the GAA, at The Factory Nightclub, in Hayes Hotel, Liberty Square, Thurles on Sunday August 25th next.
The Wolfe Tones
Regular visitors to Tipperary & currently celebrating over 49 years on the road, these legendary Dublin balladeers continue to be one of Ireland’s biggest box office attractions, having sold out all prestigious venues, during the past year right across Ireland, the UK, Mainland Europe and the U.S.A.
With the launch of their ‘Child of Destiny,’ Limited Edition DVD / CD’, featuring 17 tracks, 12 of which are brand new compositions from the pen of prolific Wolfe Tones songwriter, Brian Warfield, after 49 years, The Wolfe Tones continue to be the most creative folk group of all time.
The Wolfe Tones have been cheered and applauded wherever they have stopped to perform, whether it has been in Dublin, in the austere Royal Albert Hall in London, in the plush and famous old Olympia in Paris, at the open air folk festivals in Brittany, or in any number of concert halls throughout Germany, Sweden, Holland, Norway and Denmark.
Those of us who have travelled far and wide to see The Tones can tell you that they’re getting better all the time. Fame, throughout the years, has made them perhaps a little plumper and a little better dressed, but they still sing the best songs in the business.
I promise you that this live concert will be a sell out so, to avoid disappointment on the night, get your Tickets from The Source Box Office Tel 0504-90204 or from Hayes Hotel Tel 0504-22122 here in Thurles ASAP.
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