Joe Kennedy III visits the Lyric Theatre

We were also joined by Senior Advisors from Washington DC, Mary Sugrue, CEO of Irish American Partnership, and some of the Lyric team including our Chair, Board members and Honorary President of American Friends of the Lyric. Our Executive Producer Jimmy led the group on a tour of the theatre and our award-winning building which recently won the Gold Medal, the highest honour in Irish architecture. He talked about some of our most recent achievements, including our work in America with the critically acclaimed tour of Owen McCafferty’s Agreement to New York City’s Irish Arts Center, where Senator George Mitchell, Secretary Hillary & President Bill Clinton attended a special gala performance, and our plans to take the show to Dublin in October for the Theatre Festival. Mr Kennedy also saw the set for our current production The Pillowman in the Main Stage, met the cast of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the Rehearsal Room, met some of the young Lyric Drama Studio actors who have just finished their run of Radium Girls and saw the Box Office, FOH and costume team at work.

We presented Mr Kennedy with a special gift, showing him some correspondence with interesting family connections he has to the Lyric! In 1968 our founder Mary O’Malley, extended an invitation to Jackie Kennedy to ask her to open the Lyric Theatre when it opened its doors on Ridgeway Street, although unfortunately she wasn’t available to attend.

We also showed him another connection to the Kennedy family, and to the ideas and ideals expressed and espoused by his great-uncle President John F. Kennedy that ultimately inspired Mary O’Malley to found a theatre in Belfast. This is a marble plaque inscribed with the inspirational words from JFK’s Amherst Address, which was his last major speech delivered at Amherst College on 26 October 1963. In this he advocates the importance of poetry and art for the cultivation of civic society and democratic culture: words that ever since, have been embedded and encoded into the very DNA and identity of the Lyric Theatre:

"When power leads man towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses; for art establishes the basic human truths, which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment.”

The address continues:

“If sometimes our great artists have been the most critical of our society, it is because their sensitivity and their concern for justice, which must motivate any true artist, makes him aware that our Nation falls short of its highest potential. I see little of more importance to the future of our country and our civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist.

This plaque was repurposed from the old building, and is displayed with pride in the Lyric today in our Executive office. By giving such prominence to President Kennedy’s words back in 1968, the theatre was aspiring to become an artistic conscience in the community and a voice for creative expression, an aspiration we continue to strive for today as a shared civic space. We were delighted to make this full circle moment with Joe Kennedy on his visit, commemorating the enduring legacy of his family’s commitment to the arts and public service.