Celebrating 250 years of Christmas panto magic in Ireland

With its outlandish costumes and saucy slapstick, and an audience that boos and hisses, the annual pantomime is as much part of Christmas as the tree, crackers and plum pudding, writes Robert Hume

Theatre Royal, Smock Alley, Dublin: the epicenter of Irish panto (Irish Family History Centre)

“A little nonsense, now and then, Is realised by the wisest men”.

(Cork Examiner, 23 Dec. 1868)