CYRIL MAHONY, A SUPERB COMIC ACTOR

by Tom Kenny

Cyril Mahony was born in February 1913 in the family home on Prospect Hill. His mother was Mary Teresa Cunniffe from Loughrea and his father Gerry was a member of the R.I.C. who at one time was stationed in Belfast. He eventually left the force and came back to his mother’s house on Prospect Hill. She was Anne Flaherty from Conamara, a native speaker and a well-known maternity nurse.

Cyril was one of six children – Vin, Cyril, Maudie, Des, Piaras and Ita. Cyril went to the Monastery School from where he got a scholarship to the Bish. He used to serve mass in St. Patrick’s Church. He was very athletic, a fine sprinter and a very good rugby player, rejoicing in the nickname ‘Twinkletoes’. He played at scrumhalf and captained the first ever Connacht team not to be beaten by Leinster. The game was played in Kilkenny and speaking at the dinner afterwards, Cyril got a bit over excited and while he regretted Leinster winning, he was delighted that Connacht won. Austin Carrie who was sitting beside him, nudged him and said “It was a draw sir, a moral victory perhaps, but a draw nevertheless”.

Cyril joined the Local Defence Force during the Emergency and subsequently was very active in the F.C.A. where he was known to be a very good shot.

He graduated from College with a B.A. Subsid. And then he went to train in De La Salle College in Waterford. He came back to Galway to teach in the “Mon” and when it closed, he moved to St. Patrick’s National School where he taught until he retired. His teaching career spanned forty five years.

You could say there was a theatrical tradition in his family. His father appeared regularly on stage in the Town Hall in charity concerts doing impressions of people like Harry Lauder singing songs like “I belong to Glasgow”. Vin did a lot of acting in the Taidhbhearc and was particularly remembered for his performance in “All Quiet on the Western Front” with Walter Macken. Maudie and Ita often took part in Taidhbhearc productions and Des regularly acted in shows in the Columban Hall.

But it was Cyril who would become the best known Thespian in the family with a remarkable career that began in the Taidhbhearc in the thirties. His DNA was in that building. He was a versatile actor who must have played thousands of parts, big and small, there over forty years treading the boards. He was a superb comic actor with a great sense of timing and was wonderful to work with on stage, if ever you got into a muddle or mixed up your lines, he would always manage to get you out of trouble in a way that the audience never twigged. He just loved being on stage and entertaining audiences.

Many of his performances are remembered with great affection. He was the star, as one of the tramps, in the famous production of ‘Ag Fanacht le Godot’; He featured as a Parish Priest, wearing a long black cassock, in another production, during which he had to hold a chicken. The chicken completely upstaged him, doing his business on the cassock every night, to the great delight of the audience. He played all kinds of weird and wonderful characters in pantomimes. He also worked as manager of the Taibhdhearc.

On a personal level he was a quiet, even shy man but when he relaxed with people he was terrific company. As a teacher, he is remembered as being gentle and caring at a time when there was a lot of toughness about. Cyril never married.  He enjoyed a drink and he lived in the Ivy Hotel on Eyre Street. When that closed down, he moved to the Coachman Hotel in Dominick Street. In summer, ha always wore a jaunty straw hat while out walking.

Our pictures today feature Cyril Mahony at various points through his life. The first shows Cyril with the Connacht Rugby Team of 1940 – the first Connacht team not to lose to Leinster!

They are, back row, Miko Gallagher, President or Corinthinans; J.B. Donohue, Loughrea; Jimmy Joyce; Donncha O’Malley, Limerick/UCG; Paddy Horan; Terry Lenihan, UCG; Donal Ryan, Gurtymadden; Amby Roche. 

Middle row, Sean Gill, UCG; Gerry Mahony, Landsdowne (originally from Galway); Cyril Mahony, Captain; Josie Owens; Frank Flattery, Forster Street; Connie Finan.

The second image shows Cyril later, perhaps in the 1950s, and the third picture has Cyril in character - he’s in full flight as part of a Taibhdhearc panto around the late 1960s or early 70s.