Druid Theatre Company co-founded by Ballaghaderreen woman celebrates 50th anniversary

Druid, one of Ireland’s leading theatre companies co-founded by Ballaghadereem native Garry Hynes, is marking its 50th anniversary this year with a series of special events.

Led by Artistic Director Garry Hynes, actor Marie Mullen and the late actor Mick Lally, Druid Theatre Company started in Galway in the summer of 1975, becoming Ireland’s first professional theatre company outside Dublin. Its first performance was staged on July 3rd of that year.

The three founders originally met through the drama society of U.C.G. where they studied. Hynes’ late brother Jerome was Druid general manager during its fledgling years.

Over the last five decades, the Galway theatre company has become an acclaimed touring theatre company criss-crossing the country to bring world-class theatre to audiences in their own communities. In February this year, it staged Three Short Comedies by Seán O’Casey at Roscommon Arts Centre.

The company hit the global headlines in the late 1990s when it won several Tony Awards for its production of Martin McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane.

Hynes won a Tony Award for Best Direction, the first woman to receive the award.

She is a recipient of many other theatre awards and has received honorary Doctorates from the University of Dublin and The National University of Ireland, Galway. She was awarded the Freedom of the City of Galway in 2006.

Final rehearsals have got under way for the first part of the company’s anniversary programme of events, a Galway Arts Festival double bill this month, featuring Riders to the Sea by JM Synge and Shakespeare’s Macbeth at the Mick Lally Theatre in Galway city.

The 50th anniversary year celebrations also include two books charting the history of the company and a University of Galway symposium ‘Druid Theatre: Performance, Place, People’ taking place between October 31st and November 2nd.