Who to ? I was at Christians and Pres

There was great rejoicing at one Cork city school last week, when Christian Brothers Cork (CBC) dramatically defeated arch-rivals Presentation Brothers Cork (PBC) to win the Schools’ Under 19 Munster Senior Cup.

Trailing 10-0, CBC hit 17 points without reply to prevent their rivals from landing three in a row in the coveted rugby tournament.

It stirred memories among one Throwback Thursday reader who, unusually, had a toe in both camps!

Brian Cronin, who these days resides in Spain, said: “The other day, as I’m sure you are aware, Jo (from references you have made in the past to ing the lads for rugby matches), CBC beat PBC in the final of the Munster Schoolboys Senior cup and denied Pres winning ‘three in a row’ victories.

“I always tune in when those finals hove into sight each year on or about St Patrick’s Day.

“However, I’m always conflicted as to which team I want to see winning against their great rivals.

“You see, Jo, I spent the first 11 years of my schooling in Christians. When it came to third year, to my horror, my Mum yanked me out of Christians (as my exam results were so bad since I just wasn’t working) and enrolled me in Pres where, in the two years that followed, I did my Inter Cert and then the Matric and Leaving Cert before heading off to Shannon Hotel School.

“Once I got over the shock, I spent two very happy years in Pres, but even though I loved rugby, I just couldn’t put on a Pres jersey.”

At Shannon Hotel School, Brian met and made a life-long friend in a fellow Corkman, Tom McCarthy O’Hea .

Brian adds: “Tom was one of the oldest in our Shannon Hotel School class and I was the youngest at 16/17. So, because of our shared Cork heritage, and because I was so young and inexperienced in matters like booze and women, not to mind hoteliery, 20-year-old Tom took me under his wing and we worked together in various places and countries during the next 60 years and became life-long friends.

“Tom died of cancer five years ago, but the week before he died I answered my mobile (as I was entering Twickenham for the Ireland Grand Slam match against England) to hear this voice roaring ‘Hail Glorious St Patrick’ at the top of his voice (it was March 17) with the onition: ‘Cronin, I’m too sick to travel over but just make sure we win the match’. Which we did… and very convincingly!

“Unlike CBC v PBC matches, I was in no doubt then as to where my loyalties lay,” adds Brian.

“But my conflicted secondary school years perhaps explain why I never played for either Munster or Ireland!”

His friend, Tom, was born in Bandon but Brian explains: “He eventually became a Cork expat in Galway, where he managed the Ardilaun House Hotel for over 35 years and loved the place and his many friends there.

“His wife Eilish asked me to give the eulogy at his funeral mass in Galway, for which Anne and I travelled over.

“During my discourse, amongst other things, I referred to the time when I asked Tom whom he ed when Munster arrived to play Connacht. ‘That’s easy’, he replied, ‘because no matter who wins, I’ll be on the winning side!’”

Another example of split loyalties in sport, right there, Brian!

Moving on, and still the stories of cinema-going back in the ’50s and ’60s continue to explode from readers’ joyful memories.

Whatever it was, you always went to see it. How else would you keep up with the gang back then, if you couldn’t discuss the latest thriller, the big romantic scene, the horror episode?

Meeting on the steps of the Savoy, by Mangan’s clock (thank heaven that’s still there!), or outside the Pav, or by the sweet shop conveniently adjacent to the Assembly Rooms… our feet must have known their own way there along all those pavements of Cork city so long ago.

Throwback Thursday reader Tom Jones writes again from Florida.

“While not possessing the entrepreneurial skills of others pre-mentioned in your column,” he writes, “I also was a peddler of two tickets to the Savoy Cinema on Sunday nights along with a friend of mine.

“His aunt was a season ticket-holder, so when she did not desire to use them, she ed them on to us to sell, with 50% of their face value returned to her. (Of course, if we could sell them for more than face value, we would keep the difference and not tell her.)”

Tom reminisces: “My personal introduction into that magical world was at The Lido in Blackpool. And what a life experience it turned out to be, enraptured by watching The Durango Kid, Tarzan, Jungle Jim, and other heroes of that genre.

“With Tarzan, it was strange how the elephants, monkeys, etc, always came to his rescue in times of trouble. In particular the apes - or were they his adoptive step-parents?

“The alligators never took a liking to him, though, always seeming to indicate that he would make a nice snack. Exactly what was their problem, I couldn’t work out - after all, he seemed like a nice enough guy. Yeah, ok, maybe a ‘swinger’ of sorts? Whereas Jungle Jim movies always portrayed a scene in every film in which he rescued himself or some damsel in distress from quicksand.

“Plus, who of that era can ever forget ‘the following-up ones’. when we just had to be back next week for the ensuing chapter? Then vicariously acting out in the neighbouring streets (which were our only playground then), the adventures we had seen on the screen.”

Tom recalls: “Comedies like Old Mother Riley, and films with Laurel and Hardy, The Three Stooges (pronounced as The Three Stewdies in Cork, as I recall), and many others equally provided hours of entertainment, particularly at the Saturday matinee. Indeed, the Lido for many of us Northside kids was a window on the world.

“Somewhere around 1963 or ’64 they actually ran a live talent competition on stage there, giving local talent, or perhaps more so, chancers, their one brief moment of fame. Who else re that?

“Sadly, after that it closed, but was reopened as the Palladium, with that religious epic The Robe as its first showing, to the best of my recollection.”

Tom continues: “In last week’s Throwback Thursday, you included my recollections of the so-called risqué movies. Rather than risqué per se, they usually involved a mere glimpse of partial nudity. Particularly in relation to a series of French films called Angelique. Certainly not X-rated in any form nor manner.

“C’mon, guys, challenge your own thoughts and recollections on that episode of cinema of Cork!”

Well, you’ve heard Tom Jones. Get on with it and let us hear your recollections of tiptoeing hopefully into the cinema where a reputedly ‘questionable’ film was being shown!

From the female point of view regarding cinema-going, we have heard from Eileen Barry.

“I read your piece about films in your Thursday pages,” said Eileen. “Gosh, it brought back memories.

“Yeah, I loved the ‘real’ musicals back then, like Annie Get Your Gun. There’s No Business Like Show Business – a great number to do high kicks to while standing on stepping stones in the stream in The Glen! Oh the memories of those summer days of childhood!”

Eileen has unearthed an old diary from 1967. Like fellow reader, George Harding, whose memories we featured a few weeks ago, she had decided that year to keep a note of all the films she saw, along with notes about what she thought of them.

The first entry, oddly enough, was for the Regal Cinema in Stranraer, Scotland, on January 3.

“It was Who’s Minding The Store? with Jerry Lewis. I rated it ‘very good’. I think that must have been the time a friend and I had the daft idea of going up there for Hogmanay, and ended up in snowdrifts around Glen Nevis.

“Of course, there were no shops open in Stranraer (well, one small chip shop). Everything shut down for days over Hogmanay. I a kindly station master bringing a shovelful of coals into the cold waiting room where we had taken refuge, and bread and a toasting fork later when the fire was red! You tend not to forget something like that.”

“On January 6, it was The Sound Of Music in Cinerama Dublin. I rated it as ‘absolutely gorgeous.’ A week later, it was Sylvia at the Capitol in Cork (back home at last). With Carroll Baker. I thought it ‘quite good - bit dragged out in parts’. (I looked this film up recently, and it was rather an ‘adult’ film!). I wonder if I understood the plot fully back in ’67?

“January 21 at the Pav: Carry On Screaming. I noted: ‘Best Carry on EVER!’.”

Inclined to agree, Eileen. It was far and away the team’s cleverest spoof, on the horror movie genre, with Kenneth Williams as the mad professor and Fenella Fielding as the luscious vampire.

Eileen’s diary entries continue:

“February 4 at the Pav: The Fantastic Voyage with Raquel Welch, ‘Very good’.

“February 7 at the Ritz: Devils Of Darkness, with a guy with whom I had been paired up by a ‘Computer Date’ competition at UCC. I don’t think that this was my choice of film but didn’t like to say anything!

“February 19 at the Savoy, Dublin. Gather No Moss with the Rolling Stones. ‘Not much good... dragged out’ was my verdict. (And me being a lifetime Stones fan!)

“February 21 at the Pav: a) House Of Wax and b) Phantom Of The Rue Morgue. a) rather good. b) fair.

“February 23 at the Capitol: The Blue Max. Excellent Film, flying sequences very good.”

(That was the famous under-the-bridge sequence, shot just outside Fermoy – you can still see the bridge in question, crossing a deep valley, as you whiz past on the motorway.)

Eileen resumes: “February 27 at the Ritz. Romeo And Juliet with the Bolshoi Ballet. ‘Shakespeare and ballet don’t mix but occasional good dancing sequences with Galina Ulanova’ (I think that was a rather cheeky comment!).

“March 1 at the Lee: What’s New Pussycat? ‘Better than ever!’ (this was my third time seeing this film!).”

Gosh, yes, I those great days too, when a film would come round a second and a third time to one of the smaller houses, and you could catch up with one you’d missed first time, or enjoy it yet again. This writer re seeing Interlude at least five times, just to hear the music, and Mary Poppins even more times.

And a susceptible male acquaintance not only saw every Hayley Mills film several times, but stayed through, concealing himself under the seat, to see it again at the second showing.

That’s a wonderful record of films you saw, Eileen. Maybe we will see more of them another week?

Tell us your memories! Email [email protected] or leave a message on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/echolivecork.

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