South of the Border / Down Athlone Way

For the first time ever since it was offered for competition in 1953, the Grand Opera House Perpetual Challenge Cup came south of the border from the Opera House, Belfast, when it was won by the Sligo Drama Circle last Saturday night. Their presentation of “The Playboy of the Western World” at the Ulster Drama Festival won the top award and in addition the group received the Friers Cup for the best decor at the Festival. This was a tremendous achievement for the Sligo group so heartiest congratulations go to the cast, producer Walter Mc Donagh and all connected with the play. The Drama Circle received their nomination to Belfast from the Carrickmore (Omagh) Drama Festival and it was the first time a prize-winning group from this festival went forward to the Ulster Festival in the Northern Capital.

What intrigued me most about the Drama Circle’s success was that they failed to obtain a nomination to the All-Ireland Festival in Athlone, yet were able to go to the Belfast Festival and there, in competition against all the top amateur groups in Ulster, they carried off the major award. Certainly a system which can keep the Sligo group out of Athlone when quite obviously they had a top-class, prize-winning play seems to me to be a bit crazy. I am not the only one who holds this view and already the opinion has been expressed that if the rules governing the All-Ireland Festival in Athlone are framed in such a way that they kept out such a leading amateur group as Sligo possesses then their rules should be changed.

from The Sligo Champion, by T.P., May 26th, 1967