What Were Fit-Ups?

A fit-up is a style of theatre or circus where companies of travelling performers tour towns and villages in the provinces of Ireland, Britain and elsewhere, particularly throughout the 19th century. The term is also theatre slang to describe a stage or tent that can be transported and erected quickly for shows. A fit-up company would be a travelling company of players which carries its scenery, props and costumes that can be set up in a temporary venue, which might be a large tent, a barn or a village hall. Fit-up companies were particularly prevalent in 19th century Ireland and a study of the performance histories of these has been made by Irish academics. The oldest of these Irish companies included the J. B. Carrickford Company and Tommy Conway/Keegan, who formed the Bohemian Minstrels in the early 19th century.

The number of fit-up companies grew at the beginning of the 20th century with estimates of about 60 companies touring the Irish countryside by 1930. Their performances usually involved some form of variety act and a melodrama followed by a farce. While Worlf War 1 made times difficult for theatres in Ireland with conscription and travelling restrictions making it difficult for overseas performers to get to venues, the fit-up companies were able to continue largely unaffected. The company of the actor Anew McMaster formed in 1925 continued this earlier tradition and travelled to the remote parts of Ireland to perform until the middle of the 20th century. Examples in the 21st century would include travelling circuses, travelling fairs and Punch & Judy shows.

Generally, a fit-up company carried all their props, costumes, scenery, curtains and light systems and if necessary the materials for a temporary improvised stage which they would fit-up in whatever sort of venue was available.

Theatrical companies would travel to often remote locations and fit up the local theatres or halls. Very often these travelling shows might be the only entertainment a village might see for some time and would therefore usually play to capacity audiences.

The days of the old travelling 'fit-ups' in Ireland, were recalled when Ms Kathleen Lees (nee Murphy of Newtownbarry) a Charleville lady with a link to the old entertainment groups, recently visited her native town with her husband, Peter. These various companies brought dramatic presentations and variety entertainment to rural parts of Ireland and, indeed, bigger urban centres during the hungry years of World War II and its aftermath up to the late 1950s. The young Kathleen Murphy grew up in the Newtownbarry area of Charleville during the 1930\40s and remembers in the years leading up to World War II, that there was little in the way of work or entertainment to occupy the people of the town or, indeed, in the entire country "We had to make our own entertainment and in Charleville the young people of the Newtownbarry area formed a group to put on drama and variety shows in the local parochial hall. "We had Tommy and Jimmy Ryan, Dermot Dennehy, Dodo Murphy and Maureen Ryan and Mrs. Connolly provided musical accompaniment," recalled Kathleen. Another great friend of hers at that time was dancing teacher Mrs Maura Dinan, who taught her how to dance. Now aged 92 years, Mrs Dinan was a very popular figure in Charleville, where she taught music and Irish dancing to generations of Charleville children, Kathleen spent a lot of time reminiscing on those former days with Mrs. Dinan during her visit to Charleville. During the war years there was no employment available and nothing much to do in Charleville, so Kathleen and her friend and near neighbour, Dermot Dennehy, formed the fit-up company the Leeside Players and toured all over Ireland, bringing dramatic presentations and variety, especially to rural areas that were starved of entertainment. "They were great days when we had to book the hall, build the stage, publicise the shows, make the costumes, man the doors, arrange the transport for the next venue, participate in the drama presentation for the first half of the show and the variety section for the latter part. "Improvisation was the order of the day. We did all the lighting and sound affects, made and painted the sets and, on one occasion, we had to build the stage out of coffin boards; and after all that we slept in the hall. "We did two seasons in Salthill under canvass and did three weeks in another Co. Galway venue in the village of Tynagh," said Kathleen. She was also interviewed for Radio Eireann by the then presenter Roy Croft in a programme about the fit-ups recorded for radio in the 1950s. Kathleen emigrated to England in 1958 and got a job, still connected to the entertainment business, running the catering section in a dance hall in Fulham Broadway. There she met her then policeman husband, Peter, on whose beat the dance hall was located. The policemen always called to the hall for a cup of tea and when Peter came calling she served him with the tea, and the rest is history. Kathleen, now a sprightly 83 years old, recalled that the community in Newtownbarry was second to none, where everybody looked out for each other. "1 have great memories of the people there and of the nuns teaching us in the Mercy Convent, where we got a great education," she said. While she and her husband Peter were in Charleville they looked up old neighbours in Newtownbarry such as Tommy Ryan and, of course, her old dancing teacher, Mrs Dinan, who is still hale and hearty, and former Newtownbarry resident Noel Copley, who now resides at Love Lane, Charleville. "There are tremendous changes in Charleville now and they are all for the better," said Kathleen, who was continuing her holiday with Peter in County Kerry before returning to their home in Harrow-on _the-Hill in London. And she still keeps her hand in by performing for the eld erly in her local parish church hall in Kenton.

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The heady days of the travelling fit-up shows are remembered by Portmarnock man Paddy Dooley. At the tender age of 16 years, Paddy ran away from the Salesians Order where he was studying for the priesthood, to join a touring fit-up company. The ‘Fit-Ups’, were the travelling shows that went from town to town around Ireland. They were so-called because the actors literally transformed or fit up each town hall they visited, from arranging the seating to organising the lighting and building the stage. Paddy’s CD, ‘Farewell to the Fit-Ups’ is a tribute to days gone by and includes a selection of 12 beautiful monologues – most of them never before recorded! He explains his reasons for recording the recitations. ‘Being part of the fit-ups for over 30 years transformed my life totally. I feel I owe this CD to the great audiences of those years and to the fit-up artists who were servants to their great art,’ said Paddy, a fit and handsome 73-year-old. Born in Headford in Co Galway, Paddy doesn’t remember his family being particularly artistic.

‘I don’t really know where my love of theatre and acting comes from. But when I was younger I loved sitting round the radio with my family listening to the Abbey plays. Perhaps it started there.’ He has forever regretted the effect his running away from home in 1946 had on his darling mother. ‘My mother was very religious. She was an adorable woman and I loved her very much. I felt remorse for years. I remember the look on her face, a mix of joy and sadness. Perhaps that’s why I’ve been involved with organising events for the senior citizens, to give something back.’

Paddy joined a company called the Tara Players run by John Cowley and Annie Dalton. They later became household names when they starred in ‘The Riordans’, the long running RTE television series. Paddy has performed in a wide range of roles, from parts in O’Casey’s and Yeats’ plays, to sketches in plays such as ‘Murder in the Red Barn’ and ‘The Girl of the Golden West’. ‘I remember my first day with the fit-ups. I arrived on the bus from Galway and was met at the station by some of the actors who brought me to my digs. I remember feeling very hungry and the smell from theoil lamps up at the hall. ‘I was put up on stage that first night and I was so nervous. I was more an actor than a singer or entertainer but I soon learned and I loved it.’

Around this time Paddy met and married a young English actress, Liz Luling and started his own touring company ‘The Starlight Players’. The couple had two daughters and they toured all over the country performing. Sadly, Liz died and the children moved back to England to Liz’s parents to be educated. Later on Paddy met Rachael Glynn and married her. The happy-go-lucky family continued to tour around Ireland. But the good times cannot last forever. By the late 1960s Paddy and Rachel have four children and Rachel is keen to settle somewhere so they can be educated.

Television took its toll on the size of the audiences and they decided to settle in Portmarnock, firstly in Rose Cottage Caravan site, run by Phyllis Duffy, and later in a house on the Carrickhill Road. ‘For 22 years I was part of the never ending world of the travelling show. It was such a joyful time though that’s not to say we didn’t have difficulties. We often didn’t have much money and could nearly go hungry,’ said Paddy. Although the Dooleys have organised Fit-Up Reunion Dances for 12 years it was only last year that he had the idea of producing a CD.

‘I was at a funeral and the nuns from Scoil Íosa heard I was in the fit-ups. They said I should record some monologues. So I was in Germany with my daughter during the summer and I went into a studio and recorded them.’  Amazingly as he hasn’t recited many of the monologues in 30 years Paddy remembered them off-by-heart. ‘I never had a script and I did each recitation in one take. I was dead letter perfect, as they say in this business.

‘The CD is a tribute. I feel I owe it to the audiences who came to the shows as in a few years there’ll be no one left who remembers. Whatever you do make sure you do it sincerely. Don’t be smart as it comes across to the audience.’ ‘Farewell to the Fit-ups’ – Paddy Dooley’s CD produced by his daughter Lorna has just been released. The CD is available in the shops in Portmarnock or it can be ordered from Paddy on (01) 8463774.

Farewell To Fit-Ups 

by Mike Hackett

SUMMER IS the time for the visit of the circus that brings happiness to ‘Children of all Ages’ as the ringmaster says. It means a lot of hard work for the show people but tenting can be such fun in the fine weather. Nowadays a lot of the heavy work is done using hydraulic power, not like years ago when the stakes, canvass and poles were erected by laborious man-power. Another modern change is the invention of the ‘heated’ big-top.

Other forms of touring shows were the fit-up-type hippodrome on the green and the visiting cast that played in the local town hall. The fit-up show would usually stay two weeks before moving on to the next town. Their production nightly was composed of an hour of variety, followed by a play and a sketch to finish the night. When the indoor shows arrived to the town hall, they usually stayed one week. They brought stars from Dublin like Maureen Potter and Jack Cruise.

Below is a nostalgic emotional poem about the touring shows. It was composed by Charlie McSherry for the Gala Re-Union of Irish Fit-Up Artists held at the Portmarnock Country Club Hotel on 3rd November, 1990.

FAREWELL TO THE FIT-UPS       by    Charlie McSherry

Come take a journey back with me across the fleeting years

Re-live again those far-off times, the laughter and the tears;

Let’s read the book of memory and find on every page,

The shadows and the silhouettes that fill the phantom stage.

Do you remember all the halls we played in long ago

From Skibbereen to Swanlinbar, from Bruff to Ballymoe,

Golden summers by the sea in Donegal and Clare

When gentle moonlight filled the sky and music filled the air.

A thousand long forgotten dreams their net of memories cast,

The olden days, the olden ways, just fragments of the past;

The audience in happy mood, all laughing fit to burst,

At Captain Green or Magic Rose, Charades or Who Died First.

The routine on Monday morning, loading up the truck,

The doubtful joy of tenting in the gutter and the muck;

The baskets and the boxes and the worst of worldly cares,

Trying to lift the piano up two flights of narrow stairs.

Do you remember, Isobel, an evening such as this,

Young Kenneth Wayne and Kathleen in their youthful lovers’ bliss.

Courageous Captain Milton, condemned to die at dawn,

And the widow’s only daughter, lovely winsome Noreen Bawn.

There were often many hardships in those days of long ago,

And I’ll not forget the winters with the bitter frost and snow.

But spring was waiting in the wings, the sun would shine once more,

As eagerly we planned for all the good times yet in store.

I loved the little roads we travelled, leading far away;

I loved the kindly honest folk who came to see our play,

The villages, the busy towns, the theatre in the night,

The hall set at the crossroads with not a house in sight.

Could you recite, without the book, the ballad ‘Sam McGee’,

Could the girls play Lady Audley,

could the lads play Simon Lee.

Would you tell funny stories, do you think you’d take a chance,

And finish off the evening with a lively song or dance.

No need to study parts now, no need for morning call,

No need to put the frame up or hang curtains in the hall.

No need to put on make-up, no need for black bowtie,

Let’s go and have a bevvy, and talk of days gone by.

Remember me to all my friends and tell them what I said,

Just whisper that I’ll not forget, though forty years have fled.

The curtain ne’er shall rise again, the lights are dimmed I know,

But I cherish still, and always will, The Touring Fit-Up Show.

THERE’S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW-BUSINESS

By  Vikki Jackson Edited & Mícheál Ó hAodha

NOTE:  Vikki Jackson, who is the grand daughter of a revered icon of the travelling shows, Vic Loving, resides in Bruree, Co. Limerick and has written an account of the 'fit-ups' the travelling road shows which toured Ireland from the 1920's to the 1960's in a book entitled 'Gags and Greasepaint' and we thank her most sincerely for this most generous contribution.

Fit-ups' was a term used to describe the travelling road show and theatrical companies which once toured Ireland. The scenery which 'fitted' together; the large tents and marquees slotted and joined to create another world where audiences could lose themselves in a fantasy of beautiful costumes, sets, variety and drama. The days of the travelling shows are long since gone, other forms of entertainment having replaced them. Gone too are the days when people young and old walked, sometimes for miles, to see the 'actors' who made them laugh, cry, boo, cheer and clap at the plays, good, and not so good. There were entertainers of all kinds; singers; dancers; comedians; magicians and acrobats. For sheer good value it was hard to beat the 'Fit-ups'. Indeed they spawned many a local amateur dramatic or musical group, spurred on by the 'glamour of the footlights'. There have always been travelling shows: groups of troubadours going from village to village, town to town, and all points in between. But it was in Ireland that they flourished. One of the earliest companies was "The Bohemians" owned by Tommy Conway who had joined Barry's Circus at an early age thus giving the young Tommy a taste for the stage. Later he went into Music Hall, touring both England and Ireland, and formed his own travelling show in the late 1800s. A highly talented man, he wrote his own sketches and monologues and performed acrobatics, he was also a dab hand at painting scenery. By all accounts he was an excellent boss. He is best remembered for his prolific songwriting including, amongst others, "The Moonshiner" and "Hello Patsy Fagin". Talent indeed....!! It was between the 1920s and late 1960s that the road shows thrived. There were over eighty of them, at one stage, criss-crossing Ireland, from the well-established to those which lasted no more then a few months. Of course people from different shows joined other companies, getting to know a lot of other 'pros'. It was like a rather large family. The 'Fit-ups' were to Ireland what ‘The End of the Pier' shows were to England. Names to come out of seaside entertainment included Leslie Crowther, Arthur Askey, Merle Oberon, G.H.Elliot and Tony Hancock to name but a few. However the names to emerge from the 'Fit-ups' were equally famous: Cyril Cusack, Anna Managhan, Hal Roach, Milo O'Shea, Barry Cassin, Bob Carrickford, and Sandy Kelly. In England a lot of 'wandering minstrels' from the seaside shows went into Music Hall. They too were very successful, but the Music Hall lost some of its best artistes who left to form their own companies in Ireland.

All the world’s a stage 

By John Arnold

Rural entertainment in Ballycastle before TV

By Mitchell Smyth

Before there were hundreds of channels on TV there was, in Ballycastle anyway, just ONE. The BBC (and in all honesty it was pretty dull). Before that the evening entertainment was spartan: three movies a week (great if you liked westerns (were they cheaper to rent?) -- and the radio.

But this sombre scene was enlivened now and then by the "roaming players.’’ These were little theatre groups that roved the country, playing in local halls and tents set up in fields bringing a bit of down-market music-hall to small towns. The boarding houses got a bit of off-season trade from the players. As I recall, the McAllister Hall was a favourite venue. The players were jack-of-all trades: moving scenery, staffing the box office, putting up posters around town, etc. The big attraction once -- this would be the early ‘50s -- was that the group in the McAllister hall had a wire recorder (predecessor of the tape recorder) and for the talent-show part of the program they’d record the locals doing their version of Ireland’s Got Talent and play it back for them. None of us had ever heard our own voices before. Some of the shows had snippets of P T Barnum in their acts: I remember one attraction was a man with no arms who wrote and painted with his toes. That would be called a freak show nowadays. And there were singers and maybe a conjuror and, of course, a comedian. The highlight of each night’s performance was a play, usually an Irish come-all-ye like The Colleen Bawn or Peg o’ My Heart  or Murder In The Red Barn. This was a purely rural phenomenon, for Belfast had the great old Empire Theatre, where you could find Josef Locke and James Young (from the Belfast radio comedy The McCooeys) and Arthur Lucan, who got into drag and became Old Mother Riley. The roving players lasted into the ‘50s, but television killed them, especially after UTV came into being (in 1959, I think) and gave people a choice of an evening.

Like hundreds (and more) of others in the town and parish of Athenry, my first introduction to drama was the “fit-ups”, the travelling companies who would travel from town to town and would visit Athenry no more than once a year. Their visit would be eagerly awaited by many. In pre-television Ireland and in many cases pre-electricity, the travelling group would transport us into an other world, one of make believe, and having us hanging onto their every word. They were nearly all family groups and every one of them from the youngest to the oldest was multi-talented and they were just so professional in their approach to the stage. Not only would they put on a different play on every night of their stay, they also performed a variety concert every night .They had singers, dancers, musicians a comedian and sometimes a seanachaí, simply amazing entertainment.

I think I got the acting bug at that time. I couldn’t sing, dance, or play a musical instrument but I felt that with the proper guidance and encouragement I might be able to act. I need not have worried. By the time I got around to it there was an abundance of experienced and willing mentors offering encouragement, not least among them, the incomparable Kitty Lardner. I remember quite clearly the Mc.Faddens, the McCormacs and the Carrickfords, and that was our entertainment for the year, with the exception of the occasional visit of one of the three circus families James and John Duffy and Fossetts, and hugely talented they were too. And that wasn’t just Athenry but every town and parish up and down the country north and south.

It's a small wonder then that when the fledgling new Irish television station, R.T.E., was getting off the ground, many of their programmes especially their dramas, were populated by members of the fit-up companies. Even today, many years later, the names McFadden, Duffy Carrickford and Cassin, still crop up. (Barry Cassin was a talented producer with one or more of the fit-up companies, who turned his hand very successfuly to television drama producing). Lest I forget, Stephen Brennan in ‘Glenroe’ was a Carrickford, and Anne Cassin is a popular presenter of Nationwide. The legacy of the fit-ups lives on..

One of the very popular ideas, and each of the companies employed the same tactics, to increase the door takings and small blame to them for that, was that on the final night they would stage the final of the local talent competition having featured one or more of the entrants during their variety concert on every night of their performance. The tension mounted as we approached the semi-finals, and everybody had their own opinion as to who should win. For the life of me I can’t remember any of the winners. X-Factor it was not, not even the Voice of Ireland but it was the best the parish had to offer at that time and the winner owned the bragging rights, but only until the next fit-up arrived and a new competition would begin. Two contestants that I do remember, especially, are my then neighbour in Boyhill, Micky Molloy, who always gave his own beautiful rendition of Saint Teresa of the Roses and Josie Forde from Slieverue would belt out an Ella Fitzgerald type of big song to thunderous and extended applause.

I remember most of the one-act plays the companies put on but one in particular still remains stuck in my mind. A brilliant piece of acting had the audience sitting on the edge of their seats and we left the theatre white- knuckled and scared after a very convincing performance of “Murder in the Red Barn”. I really wanted a piece of this kind of action. The whole stage was bathed in an eerie red light through the performance, and the murder itself was brutal and gory. I can assure you that I whistled past the graveyard on my way home that night, All of the action took place in a marquee type of structure erected in Taylor’s field, now the park beside the Post Office. The marquee was always about the same size, no more than 50feet long and about 20feet wide with a small stage set up at one end. Up to 150 chairs would be set up in rows the length of this temporary theatre. On the big nights, as I have outlined,  the crowd could swell to maybe 300 standing at the sides and back There could be as many more, having failed to gain entry, leaning on the wall and around the gate outside as they waited for news from inside. What was the play about? Had the funny man any good jokes? What was the talent like in the competition? It couldn’t, I’m sure, happen today, and maybe rightly so, with insurance and health and safety considerations. In another sense its a great pity that it has to be lost. Ah, such innocent times!  On the occasion of weather being so bad as to keep the paying public away, everything took place in Murphy’s Town Hall, now the Community Hall, which also doubled  (or should that be trebled)  as a Cinema and Dance Hall. Through it all, Marquee and Hall and all the years, Kitty Lardner looked and learned. She got to know the families on first name terms, and remained friendly with them for the rest of her life and she learned the rudiments of acting and production. I believe that Kitty continued to learn right up to her death just a few years ago. Because the plays were sometimes performed in Murphy’s Hall, Joan Murphy looked and learned as well and individually they asked themselves the same question, Could it be possible?  Eventually,  they put their heads together and asked themselves  Why not? The seed for Athenry” Players” had been planted.

The early years are a bit of a blur,  I honestly don’t know exactly when the group was officially formed or what their first play was .What  I do know is that Kitty and Joan were the key players (pardon the pun) and the main movers They were the ones who recruited new members, who mentored, coached and encouraged new young, and not so young would-be actors and actresses. One of the spin-offs from the fit-ups talent competitions was that it had, somewhat at least, diminished peoples fear of going on stage in front of an audience of their friends,  family  and  neighbours. One thing Kitty instilled in me even before I ever got involved was that in a play nobody could take offence at anything you say or do because you are not playing yourself but simply following a script written by somebody  else and who may even be long since dead. Having said that I don’t know but it would surprise me if the first play performed by Athenry Players was not an O’Casey given that  Kitty and Joan subsequently had such  great enjoyment and success in playing O Casey characters

Early on, Tommy Reilly (Caheroyan) was installed as producer of the fledgling group. With the benefit of hindsight this turned out to be an inspired choice. Kitty had done her homework and her research and discovered that apart from herself Tommy was the most knowledgeable in all things dramatic in the parish of Athenry. So when he came to offer his services to the new group in any way he could she knew that she had hit the jackpot. They then put it about that they had formed a drama group and were seeking new members to make up a potential cast. One of the first converts was postman Mike Fahey (Ballygurrane) and he was quickly joined by Tom Armstrong (c/o John Duffy’s, the Arch bar and grocery), Noel O’ Grady, (a nephew of Ciss Curreen, Farnablake), Kathleen Corley (Cross St.), Donal Ó Cinneide (Kennedy) N.T., (Cross St.) joined as did Jimmy Kearns (Caheroyan), Kitty Fahy (Bridge St.), and Nora Beirne (Cross St.), as well as Christy Barrett (Caheroyan)and Christy Howley (Cross  St.). Some young people were now needed and Rosemary Kennedy and Chris Kearns (both Caheroyan) were just ‘what the doctor ordered’. From the very start they played to packed houses.  The people of the town and parish flocked to support the new group and to enjoy what they had to offer. It was clear from the very start that the people of Athenry knew their drama, and any member of the audience was capable of submitting a knowledgeable critique, or adjudication, on the play they had seen, Even years later when the play was taken on a tour of the numerous Drama Festivals it was agreed by cast and producer that if we passed the test of the Athenry audience we could take our play anywhere.

So that was one of the first important decisions the new group had to make. Would they simply do their best and confine their performances to Athenry or would they take their play on the drama festival route and compete against other drama groups for recognition and for prizes such as BEST PLAY of the Festival, BEST PRODUCER, BEST ACTOR, BEST ACTRESS,  BEST SET DESIGN? At that point it would be about winning, and putting their performance under the scrutiny and adjudication of a professional adjudicator.

There was much debate among the members and it was agreed that, provided that the winning of prizes did not compromise putting on the best show they could for the appreciative Athenry audience, they would go into competition with other groups.

I never found out the reason, and anyway I don’t think it is very important, but sometime in the early 1960s the name was changed to ATHENRY DRAMA GROUP. The actors remained the same,t he producer and the backroom team remained the same, only the name had changed. The quality was still there and the prizes continued to roll in, which established Athenry as one of the top amateur drama groups in the entire country. The big winners were Kitty Lardner with best actress awards too numerous to mention, but awards for All Ireland Best Actress not once, but several times were included, and Joan Murphy, still operating somewhat in Kittys shadow, quickly filled her trophy cabinet, which also included an All- Ireland award for best supporting actress. At the male end too, the praise was high for Mike Fahy, described by more than one adjudicator as Athenrys treasure of a leading man.

Kitty Lardner, Jimmy Kennedy and Joan Murphy