Party at the Garda Station on MacCurtain Street, Cork

191-01-J.jpg

Dublin Core

Title

Party at the Garda Station on MacCurtain Street, Cork

Subject

Cork Film Festival, Garda Station, MacCurtain Street, Cork, Ronnie Shiner, Ronald Shiner, Donal Crosbie, Norma Crosbie, Edmund Purdom

Description

This is a black and white photo of a party being held at the Garda Barracks on MacCurtain Street in Cork. Marked 1962 the photo identifies four of the revellers to be the actor Ronnie Shiner, the local businessman Donal Crosbie, Norma Crosbie and Edmond Purdom, an English actor, voice artist, and director. The room is packed with a well-dressed crowd in the midst of a sing-song and includes, at the back of the room by the wooden door, three uniformed Gardaí.

At the centre of the photo, we can make out the distinctive profile of the British actor Ronald Shiner with his arms raised. Known as ‘Ronnie’, Shiner (1903-1966) was a British stand-up comedian and comedy actor who worked on stage, television and film. A career highlight included the stage version of Worm’s Eye View (1945 to 1947) followed by a film version in 1952 with Diana Dors. In 1962, around the time this photo was taken, he had made a TV version of Worm’s Eye View for the BBC. Shiner was the subject of This is Your Life in 1958 when he was surprised by Eamon Andrews at the BBC Television Theatre.

Based on photographs in Roy Hammond's own book, Media Memories of Cork (1994), we have reason to that one of the obscured figures is that of Mexican actress Linda Christian. Purdom and Christian were married to each other for the short period of 1962-1963 and so they would have been a couple at the time of this visit to Cork.

The party is taking place in the MacCurtain Street Garda Station which was located at 58 MacCurtain Street. It was originally a house built c.1830 before its use as a Garda station and constabulary barracks. The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage describes it as a terraced three-bay four-storey former house, over basement, as a pair with the adjoining former house to the west. A flight of limestone steps, framed by cast-iron railings, lead to a round-headed door opening. The station was closed in 2013, as part of a programme of Garda station closures around Ireland.

Creator

University College Cork, Cork Film Festival, RW Hammond

Source

Cork Film Festival Collection

Publisher

University College Cork

Date

1962

Contributor

RW Hammond

Rights

©RW Hammond. All rights reserved. Please credit Cork International Film Festival & provide a link back to this site.

Format

Photo
TIFF
JPEG

Language

English, eng

Coverage

1962
Cork, Ireland

Still Image Item Type Metadata

Original Format

Photo

Physical Dimensions

254 x 206mm

Collection

Citation

University College Cork, Cork Film Festival, RW Hammond , “Party at the Garda Station on MacCurtain Street, Cork,” Cork International Film Festival Archive, accessed December 21, 2024, https://corkfilmfest.ucc.ie/items/show/224.