Family silver donated to Cork Opera House

The great-granddaughter of the first manager of the Cork Opera House has donated to the theatre a treasured family artefact which he received in appreciation for his work there more than a century ago.

Tricia Murphy Black travelled from her Scottish home to present her great-grandfather James Scanlan’s 126-year-old silver salver to theatre management.

It was among a range of gifts, which included a dessert ware combination, which were given to him by “friends and admirers” when the theatre went into liquidation and his tenure ended in 1888.

The inscribed salver features a quirky blunder — the word ‘dessert’ is misspelled as ‘desert’ — with the missing ‘s’ etched over the word later.

While Ms Murphy Black inherited the salver, she said the other gifts had unfortunately been lost over time.

She said she was delighted the Opera House had agreed to accept the salver.

“In one sense there is great sadness that it is leaving the family, but in another sense there is great happiness that I am handing it back to the Opera House where I think it will be valued,” she said.

“But if I find they have put it on eBay, I shall raise the ghost of James Scanlan to haunt them,” she quipped.

Born in 1833, Mr Scanlan was a businessman, entrepreneur, and auctioneer, and a pioneering figure in Ireland’s early arts and opera scene.

He was a partner of John George McCarthy in the ownership and directorship of the New Theatre Royal. It closed in 1875 and was rebuilt in 1877 on Emmet Place as the Cork Opera House, where Mr Scanlan was its managing director until 1888.

He was the first resident director of the theatre responsible to a board of directors, and is credited with introducing Italian opera to Cork.

Damian Wallace, chairman of the Opera House board, thanked Ms Murphy Black for her donation.

A spokesperson for the Opera House said they are making plans to put the salver on public display.