A new stage for voices from the past

An archive exhibition celebrates the work of Cork theatrical legend James N Healy, writes Colette Sheridan

ONE of the leading lights of Cork’s theatrical circles from the 1940s to the 1980s is the subject of an archive exhibition at the Cork County Library HQ (beside the County Hall) which continues until Sept 13. James N Healy was a well-known actor, writer, producer and founder member of the Gilbert and Sullivan Group. He also founded the Southern Theatre Group and later, Theatre of the South. It was the Southern Theatre Group that first produced the plays of John B Keane on a professional basis.

Meeting Keane was fortuitous for Healy. An accountant with Fords, Healy was head-hunted by another Cork firm and after much soul-searching, decided to leave his secure job with the car manufacturers. However, within a year or two, his new job with a timber firm came to an end as the company went into liquidation. Cautiously, Healy began to look at the possibility of professional theatre work. When word reached him that a powerful new play by a Listowel publican was the talk of Kerry, Healy went to see it and met the author. ‘Sive’ had been rejected by the Abbey, but Keane told Healy that he could stage it in Cork. It received its Cork premiere on June 29, 1959, when the Southern Theatre Group presented it at the Father Mathew Hall, the first of 255 performances. Healy couldn’t have got a better professional start.