My Life with Alan Foley: A bomb scare cut short my Swan Lake performance

Alan Foley of Cork City Ballet speaks on the 1987 performance where the curtains came down mid-show amid an emergency response

Artistic director of Cork City Ballet Alan Foley (pictured) recalled how a bomb scare in 1987 cut short a performance of Swan Lake at Cork Opera House. Picture by Miki Barlok

It was 1987, and the audience members of Swan Lake were sitting lost in wonderment before their enjoyment quickly turned to horror.

“Please evacuate the theatre immediately.” To this day, those robotic words still echo in my mind.