{"product_id":"fierce-love-a-life-of-mary-o-malley","title":"Fierce Love: A Life of Mary O' Malley","description":"\u003cp\u003eFierce Love: The Life of Mary O’Malley\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003ewas published with the support of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and National Lottery Good Causes.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eFierce Love\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eis a compelling and candid biography of Cork-born theatre pioneer (1918-2006) Mary O’Malley, founder-director of Belfast’s Lyric Players Theatre from 1951 to 1981.\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eNeé\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eHickey, Mary went to Loreto Secondary School in Navan, Co. Meath, writing and directing her first play,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Lost Princess\u003c\/em\u003e, before living with her mother in Dublin. There she became a key member of the New Theatre Group, immersed in the city’s social and cultural life and joining the Irish Society for Intellectual Freedom.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn 14 September 1947 Mary married Armagh-born psychiatrist Pearse O’Malley, later moving to Belfast’s Derryvolgie Avenue off the Malone Road. There she formed a fifty-seat studio theatre above the stables and created Belfast Lyric Players Theatre, a company of actors and artists who were to put on 140 plays over seventeen years on a stage only ten-foot wide, asserting a broad Irish and European culture. W.B Yeats, twenty-six of whose plays were performed, was her standard-bearer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1952 she was elected to Belfast Corporation as an Irish Labour Party councillor, and in 1957 she founded the literary magazine\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThreshold\u003c\/em\u003e, which enjoyed a thirty-year lifespan. Her other activities included running a drama school, an art gallery and music academy, while raising a family of three.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs she battled conservatism, a socialist and nationalist in a Unionist city, this courageous and tenacious woman transformed Belfast with her playhouse — Liam Neeson and Ciarán Hinds were among her protégées — expanding her repertoire and bridging the political quagmire of the sixties to build a permanent 300-seater Lyric Players theatre, which opened with Yeats’s Cuchulain Cycle in October 1968. Her fierce will survived the Troubles, ensuring that her broad-based community theatre never had to close its doors. Her vision was posthumously crowned by the 2011 Lyric Theatre building overlooking the Lagan.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eFierce Love\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ecelebrates these achievements, chronicling a resourceful and controversial individual, who swam against the tide of populism and sectarianism to establish an independent academy for actors and artists in a tireless quest for imaginative freedom and excellence. Mary O’Malley’s life was complex, and her legacy enduring.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePRAISE FOR FIERCE LOVE\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003ci\u003e‘A titan of Northern Ireland’s theatrical scene … I consumed this beautiful book with a few giggles and tears of memories recalled.’\u003c\/i\u003e – Liam Neeson\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEnter stage left: Mary O’Malley and Belfast’s Lyric Theatre –\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eIrish Times\u003c\/em\u003e. Read\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/culture\/books\/2022\/09\/13\/enter-stage-left-mary-omalley-and-belfasts-lyric-theatre\/\"\u003ehere\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMary O’Malley: Bernard Adams’ new book on the Lyric Theatre founder’s quest to expand cultural horizons in Belfast –\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eBelfast Telegraph\u003c\/em\u003e. Read\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk\/life\/books\/mary-omalley-bernard-adams-new-book-on-the-lyric-theatre-founders-quest-to-expand-cultural-horizons-in-belfast-41977907.html\"\u003ehere\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Irish Bookshop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49278784569679,"sku":"","price":5.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0504\/6140\/9451\/files\/20240709-171945.jpg?v=1720551168","url":"https:\/\/theirishbookshop.pro\/products\/fierce-love-a-life-of-mary-o-malley","provider":"The Irish Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}