On this day, February 29, 1952, a meeting was held in the Bish the purpose of which was, “That a choral society titled the Patrician Choral Society under the auspices of the Patrician Brothers Past-Pupils’ Union be here and now formed.” The motion was proposed, seconded and passed unanimously. Jack Browne was elected President, Thomas Lydon as Vice-President, Jack Doherty and Brother Cuthbert as directors and Jack Begley as Treasurer.
Towards the end of the 1940s, the Department of Education had sanctioned the building of the present St Patrick’s School on a site then known as The Shambles. However, £20,000 of the cost had to be raised locally and so several functions were organised locally in order to raise funds … a 20-week draw, pantomimes, dramas and especially concerts by visiting artists. Brother Cuthbert was asked to prepare a choir to sing at these concerts and he formed one with 100 boys from the Monastery School, the Bish Primary and St Joseph’s College. They were called the Patrician Brothers Boys Choir. They sang at these concerts, they made a 78 record and were recorded by Radio Éireann. Brother Cuthbert was now suggesting that it was time for Galway to step into the musical world by forming a musical society, and as a result the above mentioned meeting came about.
At the time, every church in Galway had a choir, and many of their members joined this new group. Eventually, an orchestra was formed. The first rehearsal of the combined orchestra and choral society took place on June 9, 1952; by then the group were called the Patrician Musical Society. Dodo Courtney coached the soloists and the orchestra and Brother Cuthbert was in charge of the choir.
On May 14, 1952, the PMS gave their first public recital in the Great Southern Hotel and it was a big success. So they decided to produce their first musical show and chose the opera Maritana. It was a major undertaking with 11 principal singers, 46 in the ladies' chorus and 26 in the men’s chorus. It opened in the Town Hall on March 23, 1953 and was a resounding success. “The acoustics were superb, a whisper could be heard at the back of the hall. The atmosphere was perfect and the nature of the stage and seating meant that there was an intimacy between cast and audience.” The backstage crew included Brother Maurice, Dick Kilgarriff, and Seán Beatty, while John Mulhern and Dickie Byrne painted the sets. The PMS had filled a void in the Galway musical scene and introduced a number of gifted local singers to a wider audience — Mary Angela Kyne, Gerry Glynn and Sonny Molloy to name a few — and now it was up and running.
They produced a number of grand operas in the Town Hall for some years, then moved to the auditorium in St Patrick’s Hall, to the Rosary Hall and to Leisureland. When the Town Hall reopened after refurbishment in 1995, they returned ‘home’. As with all amateur musical societies, they faced many problems, mostly financial every year, but their dedication and enthusiasm always triumphed.
In 1954, they put on Il Trovatore followed by The Bohemian Girl in 1955, La Traviata in 1956, The Pirates of Penzance in 1957, Faust in 1958, Carmen in 1959, La Traviata in 1960, Rigoletto in 1961, Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci in 1962 and Il Trovatore in 1963. The following year, they made a decision to change from opera to musical, and so staged The Lily of Killarney and almost all subsequent productions were musicals but whatever they were, they nurtured a lot of local talent and provided countless thousands with great entertainment, excitement and pleasure.
Our first photograph shows a group rehearsing in the early days. They are, from the left: Michael Healy, Anne Watson, Tess Emerson, Raphael Ward, Liam Kearney, Marie Geraghty, Evelyn Margetts and Gerry Glynn. In front are Sonny Molloy and Susan ‘Dodo’ Courtney.
Our second image is of the backstage crew on the production of Rigoletto in 1961. They are, back row: Marie Kilgarriff, Seán Beatty, Tess Emerson, JJ Coppinger, ‘Waller’ Kelly and Dick KIlgarriff. In front are Brendan Hayes, Tommy King, Brother Maurice and Tony Wallace.
Sadly, the group could not survive the recession and they finally ceased performing several years ago. Remarkably, Tess Emerson, who features in our photographs, was an active member from the very beginning to the end.
