By Dan Walsh in Wexford town
The music is ghostly silent, no more laughter at the pantomime and sketches, gone are the colourful scenes of drama and theatre, the prizes that cheered up the friendship at the bingo sessions is long spent and the election counts are long forgotten as the historic Dun Mhuire Theatre is pulled apart seat by seat, row by row and the much-loved home of so many varieties of entertainment is lost forever in Wexford town.
Wexford County Council agreed to undertake the demolition of the former Dun Mhuire Theatre, the work has commenced on site, along with the old Tesco site, and is expected to take 10 weeks to complete.
Originally the Dun Mhuire building was the residence of the late Richard Devereux, one of Wexford’s old-time shipowners. It became a presbytery before passing into the hands of the Royal Irish Constabulary, (RIC) who were barracked there for many years.
The RIC vacated the site in 1922 when the Garda Síochána took over, before moving into the old site on Roche’s Road, which is now private property and earmarked as a Direct Provision Centre with a capacity for 50 people.
The building then became the headquarters of the Praesidium of the Legion of Mary, and home to the Catholic Girls’ Club.
In 1955 a decision was taken to construct a parochial hall which would later become known as the Dun Mhuire. A dedicated committee was tasked with going from door to door to collect money for the new hall, and their ‘silver circle’ succeeded in raising £2,000 – a staggering sum for the time. Everyone who contributed to the fund is said to have bought a brick in the building.
Construction of the new theatre commenced in 1957. A contemporary newspaper report stated that the hall was built at a cost of £30,000 with a floor ‘ of maple, sprung on the most modern lines, specially designed for dancing’.
The hall was blessed and officially opened on Sunday, December 4th, 1960, by the Most Rev Dr. James Staunton, and the opening night featured a concert starring Veronica Dunne, Michael Murphy and the Artane Boys’ Band.
Dun Mhuire was a magnet for bingo players with great prizes and buses arrived in town on a Sunday night from as far away as Rosslare, Kilmore, New Ross and Enniscorthy and so many rural villages in between.
It is claimed that Dun Mhuire was the first hall in Ireland to call the bingo numbers. Back in the early days a man by the name of Ernie Stewart travelled from Northern Ireland especially to call bingo at the Dun Mhuire. However, as bingo grew in popularity, the committee decided to invest in their own bingo machine.
In a newspaper article on the 50th anniversary penned by local journalist Saoirse McGarrigle, Matt Murphy jokingly recalled travelling to London to collect the machine. The only way they had of transporting it was on top of his car, in a manner not too unlike Del Boy Trotter’s shipping of cargo on his trusty three-wheeler!
Dun Mhuire was host to so many activities from pantomimes to céilís. Discos were part of the entertainment scene until halted for insurance reasons. Brendan Bowyer and the Royal Showband entertained the largest audience of all at the Dun Mhuire, a staggering 2,200 people.
In June of 1963, during President Kennedy’s visit to Wexford, his presidential guards were fed at the Dun Mhuire. In response, the Garda Commissioner wrote a most endearing letter to the volunteers at the Dun Mhuire thanking them for their generosity and hard work.
In 1979 the Dun Mhuire played host to the Labour Party convention and election counts were held at the hall for decades.
From entertainment to politics, the Dun Mhuire played a pivotal role in Wexford’s social scene for almost 60 years. A starting point for countless friendships and, no doubt, marriages, and a shining example of how local volunteers were once the backbone of community endeavour and success.
WexfordLocal.com 