County Limerick Youth Theatre celebrates 30th anniversary with Friars’ Gate Theatre event

County Limerick Youth Theatre celebrates 30th anniversary with Friars’ Gate Theatre event. Photo: Holly Hennessy

County Limerick Youth Theatre filled the Friars’ Gate Theatre in Kilmallock for a series of events celebrating their 30th anniversary

The County Limerick Youth Theatre filled the Friars’ Gate Theatre in Kilmallock as young people and alumni marked the first of a series of events for their 30th anniversary, an event that coincided with a showcase for Ireland’s EU Presidency.

Opened by theatre facilitator Marcella Byrnes, joined by community leaders and local representatives, the anniversary event reflected on the extraordinary success and social and cultural impact of the rural County Limerick Youth Theatre (CoLYT).

The generations of performers featured retrospective films, clips of European outreach projects, and presentations from the group’s founding members over three decades of youth drama and European engagement in rural Limerick.

advertisement
advertisement

advertisement
advertisement

advertisement
advertisement

Event organiser, Katie O’Rourke, Artistic Director of both The County Limerick Youth Theatre and the Friars’ Gate Theatre, highlighted the long-standing influence of these initiatives on young people across the region.

 A particular mark of respect was the presence of Youth Theatre Ireland at the event in the person of Alan King who had travelled down from Dublin for the day and broadly hinted at further exciting developments for CoLYT in the coming months.

O’Rourke, clearly proud of the achievements of the young people who presented on the experimental theatre work they created in Finland last year, was giving nothing away and explained that we can expect a National announcement in the coming months.

Fiona Quinn, chair of the youth theatre, explained CoLYT was initially set up by Arts officer emeritus Joan MacKernan to ensure high-quality arts provision in rural County Limerick.

Mackernan’s vision was ahead of its time, in line with modern Creative Ireland and European policy, giving young people with seldom-heard voices sustainable access to life-changing creative workshops and ensuring that their voices are heard in decision-making processes.

The access to European project funding directly aligns with the theatre’s mission to focus on European human rights and empower youth to become active agents for social change.

Among the founding members of 1996 was Trina O’Dea, attending with Niall Collins, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, who described the theatre as simply “essential” to her personal and professional life as the skills she learned in youth drama still support her today.

Minister Collins praised the venue as a vital cultural lifeline for County Limerick, making the case that youth drama deserves state financial support on par with major athletic initiatives like the Sports Facilities Fund.

“Sport isn’t for everyone,” Collins said, stressing that creative spaces require equal backing ahead of the upcoming national budget.

This message was enhanced by the presentation from former Youth Theatre member Dr Sarah O’Shea, who highlighted the many opportunities that European Youth involvement had created for her and her peer group, including Volunteering, studying and employment.  She joked that, “Whilst involvement in creative Erasmus+ European youth programmes may not result in you becoming an Educational Psychologist, it will give you a host of transferable employability skills!”

The presentations concluded with thanks to all the volunteers whose tireless, unseen work over the past three decades have enabled the youth theatre to survive and thrive, and thanks to the Limerick Arts office, councillors and LCETB for sustained funding without which add on European funding applications would not be possible.

The celebration then, fittingly, enjoyed a marvellous spread of delectable bites from the Ukranian-led Horseshoe cafe Kilmallock who had brought down a sumptuous spread for all to enjoy accompanied by traditional flute playing from Terri Byrnes.