Castlebar's Condon brothers and the town hall

By Tom Gillespie

RECENTLY I wrote about Linenhall Street and in particular the Linen Hall, which became Castlebar’s Town Hall after Lord Lucan handed the historic premises over to the then parish priest, Canon Patrick Lyons, and his successors, for the people of Castlebar, with the proviso that it be used as a non-political assembly room for the people of the town.

That was in 1896 and in the intervening 125 years, the town hall, now the Linenhall Arts Centre, has seen a huge variety of shows staged, from opera, musicals, dances, plays, concerts, pantomimes and, of course, weekly bingo sessions.

Upstairs was the Catholic Club, where billiards, snooker and card games were played, by a male-only clientele. There was a small room on the third floor where a small black-and-white television was installed and I remember watching the 1966 World Cup final there when England defeated West Germany, winning 4–2 after extra time to claim the Jules Rimet Trophy.

In the late 1960s and early ‘70s the Condon brothers, Dick and Anton, from Richard Street, were rarely out of the building with variety shows, professional touring groups and panto performances.

This photo above from the show ‘Salute to Spring’ in 1968 shows Anton (left) in full voice serenading Patsy Dwane (Spencer Street) with, to her right, Patricia Redmond (Balloor), Rosaleen Jordan (Breaffy) and Mavourneen Redmond (Balloor).

Anton, a talented performer, starred in, and produced, the spring and autumn variety shows which drew huge crowds to the town hall.

The Condon brothers undertook a huge gamble in the early 1970s when they engaged professional actors to present three comical plays over a three-week period.

I recall attending two of them - Neil Simon’s ‘Barefoot in the Park’ and ‘Boeing Boeing’; the name of the third play slips my mind. As a junior reporter with photographer Liam Lyons, we met the cast of 'Barefoot in the Park’ on Castlebar’s Mall, where suitable promotional photographs were taken for publication in The Connaught Telegraph prior to staging of the play.

‘Boeing Boeing’ by French playwright Marc Camoletti is set in the 1960s, and centres on bachelor Bernard, who has a flat in Paris and three stewardesses all engaged to him without knowing about each other.

It was a laugh a minute and the success of the play was the timing as one stewardess left the stage and another entered.

During the three-week run, Dick Condon, who passed away in October 1991, at the age of 54, was manager of the Olympia Theatre in Dublin, but still managed to keep the show on stage in Castlebar.

Later, Dick became manager of the internationally famed Theatre Royal in Norwich, England, which he developed into one of the leading theatrical centres in the UK.

Before his move to Norwich, and based on the success of the three-week town hall shows, Dick and Anton had plans drawn up for the erection of a proper theatre in Castlebar. But the UK appointment put paid to that.

When he moved to Norwich, the Theatre Royal was an ailing concern and in the space of a few years he had transformed it into a highly profitable company, thereby gaining an international reputation for his management skills.

He was also involved with the D’Oyly Carte Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company and was responsible for the revival of their operas in London and other parts of England.

Dick’s professional career began as an actor when he joined the Bohemian Players for a summer season in Ireland. He then took up a position as assistant administrator of the Dublin Theatre Festival and later its administrator.

He was in the first play to be written specially for Irish television. He had also done radio and until his Norwich appointment, he had a regular ‘Theatre Topics’ programme in Dublin.

In the mid-1980s Dick returned briefly to Ireland where he masterminded the refurbishment of the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin and planned for its booking programme for its first six months following its reopening.

In 1987, Dick was conferred with an Honorary Master of Arts degree at the University of East Anglia, in recognition of his outstanding work with the Theatre Royal in Norwich.

On that occasion Professor Keith Clayton of the School of Environmental Sciences read the public citation which stated that Dick Condon ‘brought the style of the travelling circus to Norwich and showed its relevance to filling a theatre, to making it not only profitable … but something of which everyone was proud’.

His mother, Katie, who was then aged 89 years, travelled to Norwich for the conferring - his nephew, Richard Geraghty, was also present.

The Condon brothers' parents, Dick and Kate, came to Castlebar from Belfast. Kate was a well-known business woman and she ran a very successful vegetable shop on the bridge on Bridge Street. Her premises - vacant today - has the alleged distinction of not having to pay ground rent as the foundations are built over the town river.

After Kate’s death in 1990, at the age of 93, Anton took over the business. Some years later he emigrated to Australia where he worked on building sites.

On his return, he immediately immersed himself in activities in the town hall and along with Paddy McGuinness and myself, was involved in running the John Player Tops of the Town competition, which was part of the Castlebar International Song Contest promotions.

Later Anton joined the staff of the Value Centre, Cash and Carry Centre, where he worked up to the time of his retirement.