We continue our seasonal offerings marking the start of our 70th anniversary celebrations with a revival of our recordings of 12 different poems all with a Christmas theme. Following on from successful recordings of “A Christmas Carol” and “The Age Old Message”, we have decided to re-release our series of seasonal poems over the Christmas period.

Starting on Christmas Day, December 25th and running until January 5th, we will release a recording of one seasonal poem per day, marking the 12 days of Christmas. The poems have all been recorded by members or friends of Sligo Drama Circle. There is great variety in the poems themselves as well as the voices that you will hear.

Please let others know about these online seasonal recordings and share the link with family and friends.

For Day 11 of our #12poemsofchristmas to mark our 70th Anniversary year, today’s seasonal poem is “Innocent’s Song” by Charles Causley. It is read by Maisie Tansey.

“The Christmas Rose” by Cecil Day Lewis is the seasonal poem for Day 10 of our #12poemsofchristmas to mark our 70th Anniversary year. It is read by Angela McGuire.

“A Christmas Childhood” by Patrick Kavanagh is the seasonal poem for Day 9 of our #12poemsofchristmas marking our 70th Anniversary year. It is read by Ceola Mc Gauran.

“New Year’s Day Song” by John Rice is our choice of seasonal poem for Day 8 of our #12poemsofchristmas to mark our 70th Anniversary year. It is read by Ann Marie Byrne.

For Day 7 of our #12poemsofchristmas to mark our 70th Anniversary year, today’s seasonal poem is “Ring Out, Wild Bells” by Alfred Lord Tennyson. It is read by Máire Hynes.

For the sixth of our #12poemsofchristmas to mark our 70th anniversary year, the seasonal poem is “In the Week When Christmas Comes” by Eleanor Farjeon. It is read by Laura Kiely.

For Day 5 of our #12poemsofchristmas to mark our 70th anniversary year, today’s seasonal poem is “Welcome Yule” by George Wither. It is read by Michele Feeney.

It’s Day 4 of our #12poemsofchristmas to mark our 70th anniversary year, and today’s seasonal poem is “The Christmas Life” by Wendy Cope. It is read by Lily Tansey.

For the third of our #12poemsofchristmas to mark our 70th anniversary year, the seasonal poem is Pudding Charms” by Charlotte Druitt Cole. It is read by Amber Blake.

To mark Lá an Dreoilín, the second of our #12poemsofchristmas to mark our 70th anniversary year is “The Wren Boy” by Brendan Kennelly. It is read by Fintan Whelan.

In the first of our #12poemsofchristmas to mark our 70th anniversary year, it’s an apt poem for the day that’s in it, “Christmas Day” by Brian Moses. It is read by Robert Fitzpatrick.

As part of our continuing 70th Anniversary celebrations, we are delighted to present a revival of last year’s recording of a seasonal tale by Pat Ingoldsby, entitled “The Age Old Message”. Recited by a chorus of voices, the story is a salutary tale of the real meaning of Christmas and how different people experience the celebration of Christmas. We hope you enjoy it.

Directed by Damien Quinn, the tale was recorded and edited by Fintan Whelan. The cover image is by Máire Hynes.

The chorus of voices includes the following: Sarah Ellis, Ann-Marie Byrne, Fintan Whelan, Emily Tansey, Lily Tansey, Maisie Tansey, Ursula Smullen, Denise Burns, Roy Mitchell, Patricia Murray, Devril Elliott, Holly Elliott, Fiona Kilroy, Clodagh Spellman, Helen Campbell, Joanna Mc Morrow, Lolene O’ Hara, Brian Mc Gauran, Ceola Mc Gauran, Gerry Ryan, Jessica Morris.

Sligo Drama Circle is delighted to present a revival of an audio recording of “A Christmas Carol” by Paul Thain, adapted from the book by Charles Dickens.

First produced in 2023, it was a new departure for us, embracing the wonders of modern technology to create our first audio recording of a play. Involving 21 people, we worked over many weeks, rehearsing, recording and editing to create something really special for the festive season.

Many thanks to all of the cast and crew who worked tirelessly on this unique project.

So, get a mince pie and a glass of wine, put on your headphones or hook up your speakers for the best sound quality and enjoy our presentation of “A Christmas Carol”. Simply press the play button below and relax for the next 50 minutes.

If you have enjoyed the recording, please tell your family and friends about it and leave a comment below. Happy Christmas!

The cast of the production is as follows:

Ebenezer Scrooge – Gerry Ryan

Bob Cratchit – Brian Mc Gauran

Mrs. Cratchit – Ann-Marie Byrne

Fred – Marcel Gordon

Mission Women – Fiona Kilroy & Sarah Ellis

The Ghost of Jacob Marley – Robert Fitzpatrick

First Spirit – Amber Blake

Second Spirit – Siobhán Terry

Third Spirit – Angela McGuire

Mr. Fezziwig – Hugh O’ Neill

Mrs. Fezziwig – Emily Tansey

Carol Singer – Angela McGuire

Dick – Fintan Whelan

Bella – Ursula Smullen

Belinda – Sarah Ellis

Martha – Michelle Feeney

Peter – James Blake

Bob – Seán Finan

Betty – Lily Tansey

Tiny Tim – George Ellis

Narrator – Damien Quinn

The production was directed, recorded and edited by Fintan Whelan.

Photography and costumes was by Máire Hynes.

Publicity was by Damien Quinn.

This production of “A Christmas Carol” in one act by Paul Thain is produced by special arrangement with StagePlays.com

Sligo Drama Circle will be performing the hit Roddy Doyle comedy “The Snapper” in the Spring of 2026. It will be staged for a five night run, April 21st-25th, in the Hawks Well Theatre. Set in 1980s Dublin, the play revolves around the Rabbitte family, especially nineteen years old Sharon who announces that she is pregnant. However, she refuses to divulge the name of the father, leading to all sorts of speculation with hilarious consequences.

We are looking for some talented actors to take roles in the production. Some stage experience would be an advantage, though not necessary, for these challenging roles.

Who Are We Looking For?

A: We need four females to play the roles of Sharon Rabitte, Jackie O’ Keeffe, Yvonne Burgess and Mary Curran. They are all friends and should be aged in their early 20s. They are loud, rude, crude but lots of fun when they get together.

B: We need one male and one female to play the central roles of Jimmy and Veronica Rabbitte, parents of Sharon. They should be in their late 40s or early 50s – they need to look old enough to have a nineteen year old daughter but young enough to have twelve year old twin daughters. Jimmy is a larger than life character and is quite charismatic. Veronica is more reserved but is also the voice of reason.

C: We need three children, two girls and one boy. The girls play the roles of Linda and Tracy Rabbitte and are twelve-year old twins. Although the girls are twins in the play, they need not be either identical or siblings. Their main interest is in dancing. The boy plays the role of Darren Rabbitte who is thirteen years old. He is big into cycling. All three come in and out throughout the whole play

Requirements

The main requirement is an ability to act in a strong Dublin accent and be able to sustain the accent throughout the entire performance. Comedic timing is also central to all of these characters. The play contains strong language and adult themes throughout, so actors must be comfortable with this. Parents need to bear this in mind if they would like their child to be part of the cast.

Commitment

If you wish to be considered for any of these roles, please be aware of the commitment involved – there will be a reading of the play before Christmas and then rehearsals will begin in the second week of January. Rehearsals are usually three times per week, usually Monday/Tuesday/Thursday. There will be additional rehearsals in the final weekends leading up to the performance dates in April.

Auditions

Auditions for the adult roles will be held upstairs in the Sligo Drama Circle Rehearsal Space in the Market Yard F91 EVK4 (around the corner from Montmartre Restaurant) on either Monday 24th or Tuesday 25th November at 7pm. You can come along on either night, you don’t need to attend on both nights. Auditions for the children’s roles will be on Saturday 29th November at 12 noon, also in the Market Yard.

Contact

If you would like to audition for any of these roles, please contact us via email on info@sligodramacircle.ie letting us know which role you are interested in and on what audition night you will attend. A script extract will be sent to you to prepare in advance. We look forward to seeing as many interested actors as possible.

As part of the Launch Day event for Vintage Glamour Day, a fund-raising collaboration between North-West Hospice and Sligo Races, our resident costumier, Máire Hynes, was challenged to create a vintage costume from old curtains! Máire selected a pair of curtains donated to the North-West Hospice shop and reimagined, recycled and reused them to create a stunning costume.

Máire created this stunning 18th century-style Robe a la Francaise which would grace the stage of any professional theatre. The costume took about two weeks to create and looks fabulous. The costume will be used for display purposes and for exhibitions.

The dress is photographed in the beautiful backdrop of Annaghmore House. We are grateful to the O’ Hara family for allowing us to use the property for the photo session.

We were delighted to support North-West Hospice in their fund-raising venture, Vintage Glamour Day, in association with Sligo Races. We attended a Launch Day in vintage costume at Sligo Racecourse to promote the special fund-raising day. A promo video and some photographs were taken on the day to raise awareness of the upcoming race meet.

Vintage Glamour Day takes place on the final day of the racing season at Sligo Racecourse on Friday October 24th. It is an afternoon meeting with the first race going off at 2:00pm.

We are delighted to announce that our 70th Anniversary will continue next April in the Hawk’s Well Theatre with a production of Roddy Doyle’s smash hit comedy, “The Snapper”. Directed by Damien Quinn, the stage play is based on the hugely successful book and movie and it will be a Sligo premiere of this play.

Set in Dublin in 1987, the Rabbitte family is thrown into disarray when single daughter Sharon announces that she is pregnant. However, she won’t divulge who the father of the baby is. Featuring lots of likeable characters and full of bawdy Dublin humour, the play will be a sure fire hit with Sligo audiences.

With just five performances, this production promises to leave audiences in stitches from beginning to end. Featuring a great 1980s soundtrack, this is a show you won’t want to miss. Booking for the show will open shortly.

We are delighted to announce and acknowledge Sligo Credit Union for their generous support of Sligo Drama Circle through their Community Fund. Their contribution will go toward our commemorative historical book celebrating our 70th anniversary, which will be published next year.

Sligo Credit Union’s Community Fund was set up to support projects in the Sligo/Leitrim region and €30,000 is annually donated to community groups to support particular initiatives.

As we look forward to entering our 70th anniversary year, this grant will help go towards the considerable costs of publishing a commemorative book celebrating the history and memories of our organisation.

First set up in November 1956, our organisation has always prided itself on being a “community organisation”, deeply embedded in the social and cultural life of Sligo. We deeply appreciate this support from Sligo Credit Union in helping us to bring our commemorative book project to fruition.

After the huge success of our previous productions “Sive” and “The Importance of Being Earnest”, Sligo Drama Circle is delighted to announce that our Autumn 2025 production, will be Terrence Rattigan’s classic drama, “The Browning Version”. Kicking off our 70th Anniversary celebrations, this play will be a Sligo Premiere.

Set in the private sitting room of a public boys’ school in 1940s England, the play revolves around the character of Andrew Crocker, who is retiring after 18 years as a classics professor. This change in his life forces him into a re-evaluation of his past, his marriage and his future.

To complicate matters, Crocker’s wife is having an affair with another teacher in the school and they plan on running away together. It is the only arrival of one of his students to give him a going-away gift which forces Crocker to evaluate how he is going to finish his tenure at the school.

Directed by Gerry Ryan, this classic British drama will leave audiences spellbound as they witness how “The Crock” will navigate this major change in his life.

“The Browning Version” will be performed in The Factory Performance Space in November 2025. More details to follow.

With rehearsals in full swing for the current production of the John B. Keane classic play, “SIVE” in April in the Hawk’s Well Theatre, it’s an opportune time to look back and reflect on the connection between Sligo Drama Circle and John B.’s debut play.

The connection stretches all the way back to the first production of the play in 1959. John B. was desperately trying to make a name for himself as a playwright but wasn’t having much success. He had his debut play “Sive” already written but couldn’t manage to get anyone to stage the play. Both the Abbey Theatre and the RTÉ Players rejected putting on a professional production of the play, so John B. had to consider an alternative route to his goal of becoming a professional playwright.

It was the RTÉ Players who suggested that he should give the play to an amateur group to “test the waters”, so to speak. As the amateur drama movement was in the middle of its heyday at the time, this suggestion made perfect sense. So, John B. gave the play to his local Listowel Players group, a move which would act as the catalyst to the theatre establishment sitting up and taking notice of this budding playwright.

The play struck a chord with local audiences in Kerry and was an outstanding success. The Listowel Players took the play on the amateur drama circuit and received enough nominations to make it to the 1959 All-Ireland finals in Athlone. It was at this event that the connection between “Sive” and Sligo Drama Circle commenced.

At that same time, Sligo Drama Circle was having great success with its current production of Donagh Mc Donagh’s verse play, “God’s Gentry”. It was an all-singing, all-dancing dramatic romp with a talented cast of local actors including Paddy Dooney, Joan Fitzpatrick, Eddie Mc Dermottroe, Maisie Mc Daniel, Brian Bohan, Eddie Fitzpatrick, Monica Toher, Joe Mc Morrow among others.

Sligo Drama Circle’s production of “God’s Gentry” also received enough nominations to make it to the All-Ireland drama festival for the third year in a row, having been placed second and third in the previous two years. Sligo Drama Circle members were hopeful that it would be third time lucky. So, the stage was set for a showdown between the Listowel Players production of “Sive” and Sligo Drama Circle’s production of “God’s Gentry” with both being hotly tipped.

Many in Athlone thought that Sligo Drama Circle would take the premier award for the first time since its establishment in 1956. However, it was not to be. The theatre gods had determined that it was John B.’s time to step into the limelight – “Sive” won the 1959 All-Ireland Final with Sligo Drama Circle coming in second place. “Sive” had at last cemented its place in Irish theatrical history and it also signified the emergence of a new voice in Irish theatre, John B. Keane. Listowel Players went on to perform “Sive” in the Abbey Theatre, Dublin for a week following their win in Athlone.

In the intervening years, Sligo Drama Circle has performed “Sive” on four previous occasions. The first of these productions was in the Town Hall in 1970, when the play was produced for the popular “Summer Theatre” series of plays. Proceeds from the production went to the “Little Theatre Fund” – a fund that members of Sligo Drama Circle set up to achieve their goal of having a purpose-built theatre established in Sligo. Among the cast of that production were Kay Guinane, Walter Mc Donagh, Eddie Fitzpatrick, Brian Bohan, Liam Mc Kinney and Rory Callagy. It was directed by Walter Mc Donagh. A young Maria Mc Dermottroe played the title role of Sive. John B. Keane was supposed to attend one of the performances but this did not materialise.

The next Sligo Drama Circle production of “Sive” was again in the Town Hall in July and August 1978. Again directed by Walter Mc Donagh, the cast included Frances Downey, Ann Mc Dermott, Ray Cawley, Liam Mc Kinney, Éamon Flanagan, Joe Meehan and Ronan Mc Dermott. Lionel Gallagher played the part of Seán Dóta for the first time and a young Michelle Fitzpatrick took on her first full role with Sligo Drama Circle, playing the part of Sive.

The third Sligo Drama Circle production of “Sive” was in 1987 in the Hawk’s Well Theatre, which had been open since 1982. For the third time, it was again directed by Walter Mc Donagh. On that occasion, the cast included Kay Guinane, Yvonne Curran, Joe Meehan, Brian Bohan, Daragh Mc Moreland, Eddie Mc Dermottroe and Rory Callagy. Lionel Gallagher played the part of the aging Seán Dóta for the second time and the girl he wants to marry, Sive, was played by his own daughter Darina!

The 1987 production also marked the return to the stage of Eddie Mc Dermottroe after a gap of seventeen years and he received a round of applause on his first entrance onto the stage. Incidentally, Rory Callagy showed a photograph of himself and Eddie McDermottroe dressed as the two tinkers to John B. Keane himself, to which he remarked that “Sive never seen a pair of more likeable rogues”!

Our last production of “Sive” was in the Hawk’s Well Theatre in October 2010. The cast included Pat Sweeny, Ann-Marie Byrne, Gerry Ryan, Ultan Burke, Paul Quinn, Gerry Sheerin, Michael Leydon and Liam Cunningham. The part of Sive was played by Emily Treacy. The production was directed by Fintan Whelan. The play has not been performed by Sligo Drama Circle since then.

As we approach the date for curtain-up for our current production of “Sive” in the Hawk’s Well Theatre, April 2-5, we remember all those members of Sligo Drama Circle who have been part of the great connection with John B. Keane and his debut play, “Sive”.