Blast from the Past: 'Cork Opera House is destroyed by fire: thousands watch huge blaze'
Crowds look on from Lavitt's Quay as fire engulfs Cork Opera House in 1955. Picture: Irish Examiner Archive
The second of our pieces to mark the Examiner's 180 years in existence isn't just an important account of what happened to Cork's old Opera House – it's also a brilliant piece of writing.
Back then, journalists' names weren't used in the paper, but the unknown scribe was clearly a master of their art.
We get a real sense of drama from the piece, and it also imparts plenty of solid information. It's easy to imagine the reporter furiously typing late at night in the office of the Examiner in Academy Street, a stone's throw from the blaze.
Later it would be revealed that the fire at the 100-year-old building was caused by an electrical fault. Unfortunately, it would be another 10 years before the new Opera House was opened on the same site. In the meantime, a busy fundraising campaign had been mounted to pay for the new building, with principal organisers including Ted Crosbie, part of the family who owned this newspaper at the time.
The final curtain has fallen. The Cork Opera House is no more. A 100 years of stage history has come to an end.
Never had the last moments of any drama played on this stage such an audience as last night's farewell one. In heavy rain, a vast crowd stood silently as flames enveloped a proud landmark in our city. They watched it from the short first burst of fire on its roof until the building crumbled before their eyes.
They watched, too, the firemen's fight to prevent the blaze from spreading to the nearby Cork School of Art and to the buildings in Half Moon Street. At the time of the outbreak members of the cast of the pantomime, Sleeping Beauty, including a number of small children, were engaged in rehearsal, but all were safely shepherded out of the building. A number of firemen received slight injuries.
The prelude to the final act started at 7.45pm. The theatre was closed in preparation for the annual pantomime. In the old upper circle bar the principals of the pantomime cast had gathered together for a full rehearsal under the direction of Mr James Stack, the well-known Cork producer. On the stage proper were the remainder of the cast, including the Tiny Tots, with their teacher, Miss Eileen Cavanagh. At the piano was Mrs Ogden.
Someone noticed the smell of smoke. It was in the words of Mr. Stack, "as if a cigarette were smouldering." A search was made. It proved futile. The rehearsal then went on, but the smell of smoke persisted. Then the heat was felt. The cast knew with certainty now that this rehearsal would never finish.
A few briet commands from the Opera House manager, Mr VV G Twomey, and others, and evacuation of the cast began. There was no panic. This was the end of the prelude. The drama proper had begun. Passersby noticed that the roof was on fire Cork Fire Brigade and Gardai were quickly on the scene, but soon it was evident that they were fighting a lost cause.
The roof became a blazing inferno. There were explosions as the walls fell in. The fire spread to the dressing-rooms and the make-up department, and soon these, too. were enveloped.
The Cork City Vocational Education Commif.ee. under the chairmanship of Right Rev Mgr J Scannell, P.P V.G DD, Dean of Cork, was holding its meeting in the nearby School of Art when it was announced thnt the Opera House was on fire The meeting quickly broke up, and and when it soon became obvious that there was danger to the school itself, the committee members, teachers and pupils lent a hand in the removal of equipment.
Firemen made their way into this building, and played hoses from the upper floor of the school on to the rooi of the burning building on the other side of the laneway.
The flames were now spanning Half-Moon Street, and, as the Brigade hosed the walls at this end of the Opera House, members of the staff began evacuating vans and paper stocks from the garage of this newspaper.
Showers of sparks fell on the quayside or were carried on to the roofs of houses in the vicinity, but. fortunately, the combination of the heavy rain and the firemen's hoses helped to prevent these too. from becoming a blaze.
At one- stage the position was so serious from the point of view of surrounding buildings being in possible danger, that the Fire Brigade called out their second shift.
Several of the fire-fighters received minor burns, but, fortunately, the St John Ambulance Brigade had eight men on duty to deal with these minor casualties. No serious injuries are reported. Gardaí, under Supt P Chambers, were present to control the large crowds.
Mr Twomey, the manager of the Opera House, had fortunately taken out money and other articles of importance from the office of the building before the fire got under way. The cause of the outbreak is not known.
At midnight the familiar building was but a smouldering ruin. Like the Terrys. the Bensons, Irvine and Hicks and Sir Harry Lauder, all of whom once trod its boards, it is now but a part of the history of the footlights. It was the best of Present and Past. It is now but the Past.
