An Irishwoman’s Diary: Genevieve Lyons was an actress and trend-setter in 1950s Ireland

Clodagh Finn recounts the story of a self-described “lunatic traveller” Genevieve Lyons.

A precursor of Cabaret, the show about "a bad girl with a heart of gold", became the go-to show in Dublin for a brief period in the 1950s, against all the prevailing morals of the time.

Asked later why it hadn’t been banned, as JP Donleavy’s The Gingerman was, Archbishop John Charles McQuaid pointed out that the character of Sally Bowles wasn’t Irish, and therefore didn’t present a threat to the morality of Irish women.

The star of both shows was Genevieve Lyons, an actor, theatre maker and writer who lived a very unconventional life. Her performance as Sally Bowles caused a brief craze for berets in fashion starved Dublin, and she wrote many books – one, about the famine, owed its name to Princess Margaret.

In this episode Clodagh Finn recounts the story of a self-described “lunatic traveller” who, though often penniless, followed her creative dreams.