Dr Carol Dundon: Seamus Murphy, Aloys Fleischmann, Burning of Cork

Dr Carol Dundon: Seamus Murphy, Aloys Fleischmann, Burning of Cork

Arts; Theatre; Life History;

Carol talks about life growing up St Patricks Place in Cork in a historic 18th century house where her father had his doctor’s practise. She speaks about how her father was one of only six people in the city issued with a pass during the curfew at the time of the burning of Cork during the War Of Independence. She speaks about some of the local residents of the time such as Seamus Murphy the sculptor, tilly and Aloys Fleischmann and Joan Denise Moriarty. She speaks about her family’s long association with the medical profession and her own training and work as a surgeon. She also speaks about her involvement with The Cork Shakespearean Company aka The Loft and her memories of Fr O Flynn.

11 Febuary 2017

CFP_SR00600_Dundon_2017

Cork, 1700s, 1900s, 1970s

Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive

Cork Folklore Project

English

Sound

1.wav File

43 minutes 04 seconds

Rushbrooke, Cobh, Co Cork.

.wav

24bit / 48kHz

The following is a short extract from the interview transcript, copyright of the Cork Folklore Project. If you wish to access further archival material please contact CFP, folklorearchive@gmail.com

CD.    My mother had been one of the original children who Fr O’Flynn taught poetry, and… She was there at the very beginning as actually, as a very small child. She used to attend classes in the presbytery when she was aged only about 6 I think, and Fr. O’Flynn taught her poetry. Not Shakespeare, but Robert Louis Stevenson's Child's Garden of Verses. He had her saying poetry. And, and these classes in the presbytery, they were the very beginnings of The Loft. Fr. O’Flynn then found an old loft near Shandon and the classes moved into this premises, which ….my mother loved .And, she was in the week, the great week where they did eight different Shakespearean plays. She took part in that. And she also took part in a very famous production of The Midsummer’s Night Dream, which was held on the roof of The North Infirmary. And ….it was held for a private audience: the medical staff, and the nuns, and some clerics went and I think the bishop of Cork went. And my father…. attended it as a young boy, because his father was on the staff of The North Infirmary. So he was in the audience and he saw my mother play the part of ‘Puck’ in The Midsummer’s Night Dream and that was how my parent’s actually met. Was through Shakespeare, on the roof of The North Infirmary. So that’s quite a way to meet, it really is.

DMC.   And, and what year, what period was this?

CD.   My mother did ‘Puck’ when she was very young, so, she was born 1916 so…. I think she did Puck when she was about 12. Yes, she was very young, Puck. But, she always remembered that day, she said t'was one of the great days of her life, actually, playing ‘Puck’ on the roof of The North Infirmary. And, therefore when we were children she brought us up to meet Fr. O’Flynn because she adored Fr. O’Flynn and very much wanted us to, to be in the tradition of the loft, you know?