Kilmainhamwood Pageant 1970

O Carolan Pageant Programme

An O'Carolan festival was held in Kilmainhamwood in 1970 to celebrate the tricentenary of the birth of O'Carolan. Members of the pageant included Carolan as a boy and as an adult, Bridget Cruise, Mrs MacDermottroe and her husband and some of the patrons for whom Carolan composed music. The pageant was written and directed by Proinnsias O Duigneain. The whole community was involved in the production which had an elaborate script, thirteen different scenes, various stage sets, multiple props and a small army of actors and stage assistants. The pageant was performed six times in June and July 1970.

O Carolan Pageant Programme

O Carolan Pageant Programme

An O'Carolan festival was held in Kilmainhamwood in 1970 to celebrate the tricentenary of the birth of O'Carolan. Members of the pageant included Carolan as a boy and as an adult, Bridget Cruise, Mrs MacDermottroe and her husband and some of the patrons for whom Carolan composed music. The pageant was written and directed by Proinnsias O Duigneain. The whole community was involved in the production which had an elaborate script, thirteen different scenes, various stage sets, multiple props and a small army of actors and stage assistants. The pageant was performed six times in June and July 1970.

Enlarge image

An O'Carolan festival was held in Kilmainhamwood in 1970 to celebrate the tricentenary of the birth of O'Carolan.

This was a mammoth event which brought the whole community together.

The project involved an elaborate script, thirteen different scenes, stage sets, props and a small army of actors and stage assistants.

The pageant was written and directed by Proinnsian O Duigneain from Leitrim and produced by local curate Father Michael Cooke.

The harp music was performed by Grainne Yeats.

The pageant was perfomed in a field opposite the school, with the stage sets on the flat and the audience on the hill.

This rare tribute has lived on in the minds of local people ever since.