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Limerick Profile - Michael Kearney, President of The Quarry Players E-mail
Written by Rachael Finucane   
Tuesday, 25 November 2008
Michael Kearney, President of The Quarry Players

MICHAEL Kearney became involved in the theatre 30 years ago by performing on the stage before going to work behind the scenes and the president of The Quarry Players is currently directing his sixteenth play for the amateur company.
‘The Lieutenant of Inishmore’ by Martin McDonagh is playing at the LIT Millenium Theatre this week (running nightly until November 29) and according to Michael, it will bring “blacker than black comedy” to local audiences. “We have done several of his plays; we were the first amateur group in Ireland to do ‘The Beauty Queen of Leenane’. His work is very interesting and often extremely funny. His parents are from Connemara and he has a great insight into the way the people speak and act. The play is about a one-man splinter group of a splinter group of a splinter group of the IRA. We have a fantastic cast and crew.”
Michael has acted in 25 full-length plays including ‘The Honeyspike’, ‘Translations’ and ‘The Shadow of a Gunman and directed works by writers such as Brian McMahon, John B Keane and Tom Murphy.
“I’m originally from Croom and I always had an interest in drama. I remember writing plays when I was in secondary school, on the back of brown envelopes that we had at home. The only plays I had come across were by Shakespeare but I started going to the theatre at a young age. I moved to Ballinacurra Gardens and The Quarry Players had been formed in Greenfields nearby; the name comes from Gough’s Quarry. I simply came across the group and got involved,” he explained.
He said that at the time there were very few such groups and “many would say that the Quarry Players re-ignited the interest in drama in the city”.
“The group has enjoyed massive success and it’s had nearly 900 people go through it in all; we have a roll of honour. Even after 40 years, a core number of people remain. Founder members, John Ryan and John Gibbons, are still actively involved as well as long-term members like Barbara Fenton. We were very fortunate to get an influx of young people in the last few years and they are as committed as we were at that age so we hope our future is secure with them.”
Former members who have gone on to act and work in theatre include Nigel Mercier, Cathal Costello, Conor Byrne and Séamus O’Brien and the company has won too many accolades since its foundation to count.
Michael said that while he enjoyed acting, directing plays is also very rewarding.
“What I like is that you play every character yourself. You have to use your imagination to get inside every character and decide how they should deliver their lines, where they are on stage or what their entrances will be like. There are some wonderful new actors coming up in Limerick and in the spring, we hope to work with as many young people as possible on some one-act plays. It’s all about keeping the spirit of drama alive locally.”
He feels that it is “a shocking disgrace” that the city’s only professional company, Island, has been denied Arts Council funding.
“We looked up to Island years ago because they were the standard-bearers, along with visiting professional companies to the Belltable and the like. We always asked ‘Can we do things as good as them?’ We upped our own standards in order to survive because we felt that audiences would expect better and decided to give them the quality they were used to. It’s an awful pity that young actors are now forced to move away to join a professional company,” he said.
According to Michael, the show must go on and he urged local people to “come out and see the play and support their own” so that the Quarry Players can continue its work.

Tickets for ‘The Lieutenant of Inishmore’ are available on 061-322322 and for more information, see www.quarryplayers.com.

Name: Michael Kearney
Occupation: President of The Quarry Players.
Location: Castletroy.
Favourite thing about Limerick: The Munster V All Blacks match showed all that is great and good about the city.
Worst thing about Limerick: The senseless violence that sometimes takes place here.


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