FRANKIE BYRNE’S radio programme may have finished up nearly 30 years ago, but it is part of the soundtrack to Irish lives in that era.
Frankie’s sexy, gravely, voice was heard in almost every kitchen at lunch-time, in an era when school-children and men came home to mammy for dinner in the middle of the day. Frankie’s agony aunt programme, The Women’s Page, followed the news and many children recall being shushed as their parents listened in to the unfortunate individual’s particular problem.
Frankie Byrne carefully walked the line between giving as much practical advice as she could, yet maintaining a nationwide code of silence about certain matters. “Talk to your mother....” she urged. “Soon!”
Now, Five Lamps Theatre Company presents Niamh Gleeson’s Dear Frankie, a new play about the life and times of Frankie Byrne, the iconic Radio Éireann agony aunt. The play celebrates her eclectic life, infectious humour, and her sparkling career carved from her own drive for a less humdrum life than 1950s Ireland expected her to live.
Dear Frankie also follows her deep sorrows, the secret she hid from the public for so many years, her descent into alcoholism, and her steely rise out of the dark to a contentment and acceptance.
Mayo-based author Niamh Gleeson, who has been writer in residence for the last 10 years at Dublin’s Marino College reveals what drew her to Frankie Byrne’s story.
“I never heard her myself on the radio. Then a few years go I saw the Mint Productions documentary about her life and I was immediately struck by her and her story,” says Niamh. “She was an amazing character yet I knew nothing about her; anyone I spoke to above a certain age had loads to say about Frankie Byrne but nobody my age did. I thought that was interesting, she just seemed to disappear from the public eye altogether.”
Having resolved to write about Byrne’s story, Gleeson diligently tracked down and spoke to many of Frankie’s family and acquaintances.
“I spoke to a lot of people who knew her like film censor Seamus Smith, her niece Barbara and her daughter Valerie who was very supportive while not wanting to be in the limelight at all.”
Naturally, Gleeson wanted to feature some of the problems that Frankie’s listeners submitted to her programme but here she did meet a problem.
“I expected RTÉ would have loads of the programmes in their archive but it turned out nearly all of them were taped over and only two programmes remained!” she says. “Then I came across a book that collected her articles from the problem page she did in The Evening Press.
“The book was out of print and the last copies had been bought by a café in Dun Laoghaire that had used the pages to decorate the bathroom walls, but I went out there and they had a copy left that they gave me so we used some of the problems from that in the show.”
The play delves into the lows of Byrne’s life as well as her highs.
“She had huge success professionally but there were difficulties in her private life,” Niamh acknowledges. “She gave up her daughter Valerie for adoption, she had problems with alcoholism which she overcame, and she succumbed to Alzheimer’s quite rapidly at the end of her life.
“But the play isn’t all doom and gloom and I think the problems she had to face herself helped her have the empathy she did for all the problems that people sent in to her.”
Dear Frankie features a terrific performance from Nuala Hayes as Frankie and the cast is completed by Sarah Barragry and Donagh Deeney.
The play has been hailed as “fantastic” on RTÉ’s John Murray Show, and it is proving to be a huge hit on its tour throughout Ireland.
Dear Frankie comes to the Town Hall on Tuesday October 26 and Wednesday 27. Tickets are available from the Town Hall on 091 - 569777.
