Mary O'Malley (director)

This article is about the stage director. For other uses, see Mary O'Malley.

Mary O'Malley
Born
Mary Margaret Hickey

(1918-07-28)July 28, 1918
Mallow, County Cork, Ireland
DiedApril 22, 2006(2006-04-22) (aged 87)
Booterstown, County Dublin, Ireland
OccupationTheatre director

Mary Margaret O'Malley (née Hickey; 28 July 1918 Mallow, County Cork – 22 April 2006 Booterstown, County Dublin) was an Irish theatre director and, with her husband Pearse, co-founder of Belfast's Lyric Players Theatre, now typically known as the Lyric Theatre, Belfast.[1]

Life

On 14 September 1947, Mary married County Armagh-born psychiatrist Pearse O’Malley in University Church, Dublin and soon afterwards moved to Belfast.[2]

She was elected to Belfast Corporation in 1951, as an Irish Labour Party councillor for the Smithfield ward.[3]

O'Malley was appointed as an honorary member of the Ulster Society of Women Artists in 1958.[4] In 1959, she founded Threshold literary magazine.[1][5][6]

In March 1951, she started Belfast’s Lyric Players Theatre, initially at Ulsterville House[7] and, the following year, in the former stables at the back of her home in Derryvolgie Avenue, off the Malone Road.[1]

In October 1968 a new, purpose-built Lyric Theatre opened on Ridgeway Street.[8][9] The date of the official opening was chosen by O'Malley as a homage to US President John F. Kennedy's Amherst address, 26 October 1963, in which he affirmed the role of the artist in society.[10]

In 1976, she retired in Wicklow.[2] Her autobiography, Never Shake Hands with the Devil, was published in 1990.

The Lyric Players Theatre archives are held at NUI Galway.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b c Adams, Bernard (29 April 2006). "Mary O'Malley". The Independent. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  2. ^ a b Henry, Lee (6 February 2008). "Mary O'Malley Changed the NI Stage". Culture Northern Ireland. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  3. ^ Lunney, Linde (December 2011). "O'Malley, Mary". Dictionary of Irish Biography. doi:10.3318/dib.009431.v1. Retrieved 18 February 2025.
  4. ^ "Women artists to show own works". Belfast Telegraph. 10 December 1958. p. 8. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  5. ^ Shovlin, Frank (2003). The Irish literary periodical, 1923–1958. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-926739-2.
  6. ^ "The Lyric Lives Heritage Project – Help us with our collection". Archived from the original on 20 February 2009. Retrieved 23 May 2009.
  7. ^ Grene, Nicholas; Morash, Chris (2016). The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish Theatre. Oxford University Press.
  8. ^ Murray, Christopher (1997). Twentieth-century Irish drama. Manchester University Press ND. ISBN 978-0-7190-4157-0.
  9. ^ "The Lyric Lives Heritage Project – Quotes". Archived from the original on 20 February 2009. Retrieved 23 May 2009.
  10. ^ Coyle, Jane (29 October 2018). "The Lyric Theatre at 50: a cultural bridge in a divided city". The Irish Times. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  11. ^ "Finding Aid: Lyric Players Theatre collection, 1944-2001: Irish Literary Collections". Archived from the original on 19 June 2010. Retrieved 23 May 2009.
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