The Only Playboy: Eddie Mc Dermottroe

In Sligo the name Mc Dermottroe is synonymous with superb acting. Eddie Mc Dermottroe Senior delighted and enthralled audiences for years with his many brilliant performances during his time with the Sligo Drama Circle. Maria, his daughter followed in her father’s footsteps. First as an amateur and later as a polished professional. Young Conor is also making a name for himself in acting circles. But when you question Eddie Junior about his brilliant performance as Christy Mahon in The Playboy of the Western World, he modestly shrugs off his acting ability.

“My sister Maria and my brother Conor are professional actors because of the direct influence of our father Eddie Mc Dermottroe and the Sligo Drama Circle”, Eddie explains. “I would certainly say that my father was the best actor on and off stage that I ever saw”. However, when it came to choosing his life’s career, Eddie Junior followed his lifelong passion for horses. “I was always interested in horses”, Eddie said. “I worked around Billy Boyer’s horses since I was a kid”. Eddie then went on to tell us that he did Stud Farm Management at the Irish National Stud in Kildare. “I got a travel scholarship from the National Stud”, Eddie continued. “I was very fortunate to secure a position at the Lindsay Park Racing Stables in Angaston, South Australia”.

The Lindsay Park Racing Stables is probably the most prestigious and the best in the world. It certainly is the biggest. In Eddie’s first year there, the Lindsay park Racing Stables trained three hundred winners. Included in that awesome number was Robert Sangster’s Bel Dale Bull that won the Melbourne Cup. While in Australia, Eddie met and married his wife Allison, affectionately known as Ali. Ali is also a horse enthusiast. A proficient award winning expert. Ali specialises in three-day eventing. “Ali fell in love with Sligo the first time I brought her here” Eddie said. “We both knew that one day we’d settle here”. In the meantime Eddie and Ali followed the pattern set by their idyllic open air wedding by having their daughter Daisy (4) christened by Aboriginies also in the open air.

“The ceremony was simple and beautiful”, Eddie said. “She was dedicated a child of God, a child of the soil in a very moving ceremony”. Eddie’s account of his wonderful life in Australia and the shared passion for horses of himself and his wife Ali, was fascinating, but steering the conversation back to his return to Sligo and his involvement in acting. “Ali and I are establishing an Equine training facility at Hazelwood”, Eddie explained. In connection with this business, based at Percymount in Hazelwood, I was going into the courthouse one day when Frankie Brannigan, producer of The Playboy casually asked me to give him a hand”. So it was that Eddie Mc Dermottroe landed the lead in The Playboy that has attracted so much attention.

Then it was back to Eddie’s love of horses. While riding professionally in Australia, Eddie had a very unfortunate accident. His mount had a heart attack and Eddie was seriously injured. Eddie now laughs at the incident. “I was in a coma”, he said. “When the medical team wanted to know where I wished to be moved, I kept saying Sligo”. So, in his own way, Eddie Mc Dermottroe has put Sligo on the map. Eddie Mc Dermottroe’s equine achievements are outstanding, as are those of his wife Ali. In establishing an Equine centre in Sligo, both these talented people are putting the training and breeding of horses within easy reach of Sligo equine enthusiasts. In the meantime Eddie Mc Dermottroe (Jnr.) is carrying on the great tradition of acting that Eddie (Snr.) established in Sligo. The Playboy of the Western World runs at the Hawk’s Well until tomorrow night Saturday 17th. Don’t miss it.

An interview by Dympna Mc Namara in The Sligo Weekender, August 16th, 1996