Michael's dream of playing Da finally comes true after 40 years

For almost 40 years Michael Rooney has had a dream. The avid drama fan has longed to perform the role of Da in Hugh Leonard’s classic play of the same name, since he first saw it as a 21-year-old in 1973.  

Now, after a lot of hard work and persistence, and huge personal investment, it’s finally about to happen for the retired Guinness employee.

Michael will take to the stage of the Town Hall Theatre from April 10-14 in Leonard’s semi-autobiographical play, which is set in Dublin and based on the relationship between adopted son Charlie and the Da of the title.

“When I saw it performed by the Guinness Players in 1973, I knew I wanted to play the old fella but I was too young at the time,” explains Michael, who retains an unmistakable Dublin accent despite living in Galway for the past 30 years.

He was a member of the Guinness Players as a young Guinness employee, but as he was promoted through the ranks, he moved first to Cork and then Galway City where he and his Cavan-born wife, Ann reared their three children.

Michael became involved the Knocknacarra based amateur drama company KATS, which was founded by the late Paddy Henry. Directed by Paddy, he won best actor in the 2003 All-Ireland Amateur Drama finals playing Tajamoura in Roshomon.

Michael retired from Guinness 10 years ago and since then trained as an official tour guide and a bus driver, which has offered a perfect outlet for his storytelling talents. But his dream of playing Da still lingered.

Last June, he decided the time had come for him to take on the challenge.

“I didn’t want to be sitting in a nursing home wondering if I could have been a contender!”

He is very clear about what attracted him to the part of Da.“I see something of my own father in him. My father was 53 when he died of cancer and he was loved by my pals at a time when fathers were strict. I also see a lot of my uncles in him.

“But it’s the innocence of the poor man as well,” he continues, “and the frustration he brings out in Charlie, his son. Why is such a simple man so happy with his lot?”

We all have parents and, for that reason, everybody can relate to Da, says Michael.

“It’s a play for everyone and it wasn’t for nothing it won a Tony on Broadway,” he observes. 

Da is currently being staged in Dublin by the Gate Theatre in a professional production.

There hasn’t been an amateur staging of the play in Galway for many years, so last year Michael decided the time had come.

Although he had appeared in many productions through the years, he had never worked on the administrative side of theatre, and he laughs at how little he knew of what’s involved in staging a play.

He approached the manager of the city’s Town Hall Theatre, Michael Diskin in July to book the venue.

“He asked me if I had got the rights for Da,” he says, referring to the performance rights – no company, amateur or professional, is entitled to perform a play without securing these.

Michael Rooney had no idea what was involved, but guided by Mike Diskin he rang the Drama League of Ireland, the body representing amateur drama groups around the country.

“They told me the amateur rights had been withdrawn until further notice by the writer’s agent.”

He learned that Druid Theatre, meanwhile, had bought the rights to perform it professionally.

Michael Rooney acted swiftly. From his days with Guinness, when that company sponsored the Galway Arts Festival, he knew the Festival’s former manager, Fergal McGrath, who had also served as general manager of Druid.

Through Fergal, he contacted Druid, only to learn that the company had passed on the professional rights for Da to Dublin’s Gate Theatre.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.