On the Poddle
23 Jul 1979Dan Lowry built his music hall on the River Poddle — it actually runs under the theatre. Seemingly, he was anxious to have an entrance from Dame Street arid it was his ambition to change the position of the stage. But the river proved an obstacle.
So now when we pass under the rococo canopy in Dame Street, we have to go on through what in fact is a tunnel under the stage, to enter the auditorium which stands in ornate, if somewhat tatty, splendour as it did when the Empire reopened in 1897.
It’s a theatre built in the fashion of fable, a tumbling dream-house _straight out” of Victorian fantasy. And its story has been an integral part of_. Dublin’s,rich cultural heritage.
One of the most colourful characters associated with the early theatre, according to Seamus de Burca, writer and Olympian extraordinary, was one Barney Armstrong. It was he who introduced to Dublin’ the beautiful Madge Clifden, perhaps the most famous principal boy ever.
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