Aidan Corbett
A man from a theatre group in West Waterford has been collating historical photographs for a book to be released before the end of the year.
Tom Hyland has been producing the Booley House show since its inception in 1991. He is also the chairman of the Ballyduff Comhaltas branch. He also finds time to be the local set dancing teacher.
In 2004, Ballyduff became the first Waterford group to win the All-Ireland Drama Open competition.
Mr Hyland is very proud of the long running tradition within Ballyduff's theatre group.
"It's basically 50 years on the road now at this stage. And we organize loads of classes, everything to do with traditional music, song and dance and it has been thriving for years and years," he said."
"The Booley House show is running over 30 years now at the moment. I think it's the time of the year that people are really looking forward to. You see the classes are here and it's kind of a build up for them, the dancers and all the young people. They some place to perform to make it seem like it's all worthwhile. You know that they're learning this for some reason, not just for competition, but to have enjoyment as well."
Mr Hyland outlined the motivation behind the setting up of the group in the 20th century.
"In those days, there was nothing culturally on midweek for tourists, just the pub. But then we thought it might be a nice idea to put on a kind of stage show midweek, where people could go if they wanted to."
The Comhaltas branch will be what the upcoming book is centered on. The chairman outlined the early days of the group.
"It kind of started off very small, just with a set dancing group. And it grew to music classes. All different types of dance classes connected to Irish dance. And lots of people that have gone through this have wound up in Riverdance," he said.
The Comhaltas Chairman outlined that the book will be going to print in the near future with the hope that the book will be available to purchase in December.
"The pressure was on then. We thought this was a dream that it would be great to have this out for Christmas. Then we were thinking it really would be great if we had it out for Christmas. So we put on the pressure then. And here we go. Hopefully it might happen."
Mr Hyland was very appreciative of the information provided by locals for the book.
The St Michael's, Muintir na Tíre hall is very much appreciated in the area, none more so than by Mr Hyland.
Asked when and where people would be able to purchase the book, the Ballyduff Comhaltas Chairman responded:
"It will be on sale here with our shows. We are thinking it might be a nice Christmas present for people. We will have a launch here I think over Christmas. And we will definitely do a show."
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