'Hello' from the Motherways

The Diary was in telephone touch with Jim and Lucy Motherway in Perth over the Christmas season, and both are in good form.

Many in Kilcullen will remember the Motherways, who lived here through the sixties and seventies before emigrating down under.

Jim, formerly an Army officer, also established a holiday business called Funtrek, where he led small groups of people on holidays to what were then exotic and hard-to-get-to places.

But he was also a leading light in the Kilcullen Drama Group, and during our recent chat he reminded your Editor of the final night of a production of 'The Field', in which he had played the part of a bishop, in full regalia.

The run ended with some post-performance celebration on stage, and at one point the bishop and the sound-effects manager (your Editor) found themselves directing late night traffic through the town around a minor timpist outside the theatre. The bemused response of a truck driver who found himself being waved down at midnight by a 'bishop' was theatre in itself ...

Jim also recalled with affection Dick Dunphy, still a regular performer with the group.

"Dick was the kind of guy who learned his lines assiduously, and he'd be word-perfect at rehearsal, which really used to annoy the rest of us. But I remember on one occasion, in a play directed by Fr Price, when it came to a part where he was supposed to whisper an Act of Contrition into another character's ear ... and he couldn't remember the prayer!"

And Dick got no sympathy from his fellow actors for forgetting those particular lines.

Meantime, though, Jim Motherway is still himself active in drama, and is currently directing a play in Perth.

He says 'hello' to all old friends in Kilcullen.

Brian Byrne.