JIM DALY  (1952-2009)

THIS PAGE CONTAINS OLLIE BRESLIN'S ORIGINAL EMAIL, JIM NOLAN'S TRIBUTE AT THE FUNERAL MASS, A 2008 INTERVIEW WITH JIM DALY AND SOME APPRECIATIONS OF JIM FROM 1997.

MORE TRIBUTES:   PAGE 1    PAGE 2 

SLIDESHOWS:  JIM'S SHED   JIM DALY TRIBUTE NIGHT

From: Ollie  -  Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2009 1:06 PM

Subject: sad bad news

Hello,

Just circulating this email to people who would have worked with or known Jim Daly over the years. He passed away this morning after a good long struggle with cancer. He was even writing up to a few weeks ago.

Jim was a key person in the arts in waterford and his contribution (with his wife Bernie) is immeasurable - he helped with lighting design for numerous shows (from youth theatre, to musicals, to school shows to full-scale professional productions), he helped with the Board of Red kettle for many years, he took part in all sorts of mad events from Spraoi to Paddys day. He supported all sorts of people from young writers to techies, from actors to directors. He will be sorely missed.

For Waterford Youth Arts he lit most of our shows in the last 25 years. He wrote at least five plays. He ran our creative writing classes for young people over many years.

He was also a key guy for teaching a special swimming technique to disabled groups and ran these courses both in waterford and throughout Ireland over his lifetime. - (See this link.)

Jim was a great talker, pipe smoker, socialist and a fine man to have at any session where he could be sure to sing a Cohen song.

If you would like to share an ould yarn or an anecdote about jim - just send them here and we'll put them up on our website as a little tribute.

--ollie

Found this from 2008 - Jim answered a few questions... --ollie

You’ve been involved in local theatre for many years. How did it all begin? You’ve worked a number of jobs, most notably lighting designer. Any fond memories of working on past shows?

I have been involved in theatre since 1985. At that time I was employed as a telecommunications technician with Telecom Eireann which later became Eircom.

One of my very good friends at work was the actor Jim O’Meara from Ferrybank. Jim was in a play in the Theatre Royal written by another friend of ours at work, Jim Nolan. The play was called ‘The Gods are Angry Miss Kerr’. Jim O’Meara told me at work one day that the play was so successful that the company that produced it ‘Red Kettle’ was asked to reprise it as a charity night for the famine victims of Ethiopia. Jim O’Meara told me that “Red Kettle” were short of stage hands. I volunteered my services and met with Kieran Stewart (now a playwright himself) who led the stage hands team. Red Kettles next production was a double header of one act plays again written by Jim Nolan ‘The Black Pool’ and ‘The Boathouse’. For that production I worked as the sound operator. In the years that followed I worked as stage manager and production manager on Red Kettle productions. In the late 1980’s Red Kettle had its first production in Waterford’s newest theatre, Garter Lane. This was a play by the Italian playwright Dario Fo called ‘The Accidental Death of an Anarchist’. On this production I became a lighting operator.

For several years after I became apprenticed to some of the best lighting designers in the country, Conleth White, Roger Frith, Rupert Murray (R.I.P) Eventually I became a lighting designer myself. My first professional assignment was on ‘Red Kettles’ production of Athol Fugard’s play’Hello and Goodbye’.

Jim O’Meara took early retirement from Telecom Eireann and along with Ollie Breslin put all their energy and talents to provide theatre with and for young people. Some years ago in 2003 Waterford Youth Arts contracted a talented director Scott Johnson to direct their showcase summer production of that year. Scott insisted that he wanted a writer in the rehearsal room from the beginning of the project. I began to think that instead of scrambling my knees and elbows working on lighting rigs that pushing a pen around a page might be a cushier number. I volunteered. I soon discovered that pushing a pen around a page scrambles your brain which is just as tough. But when it works, the feeling of self satisfaction is intense. After ‘The Land of Stuff’ came ‘Instant Mash’ followed by ‘Black Veil’, ‘Fair Play, Foul Play’ and ‘To Leap From Paradise’.

You’re also an established poet. What do you draw your influence from?

Just as I served my apprenticeship to become a Telecommunications Technician and a Lighting Designer I began to study, to serve my apprenticeship to become a writer. I joined the Open University. From that institution I was awarded my B.A. Degree and my M.A. in Literature. As well as writing plays I have lately began to write poetry which has been published by the Cork magazine ‘Southword’. My poetry seems to come from a different well than my plays- a more personal well.

Creative writing is obviously a passion of yours and you’ve even turned to teaching. Do you enjoy that aspect of it?/ A lot of people dabble at writing what are the usual pitfalls many of them fall into?

I have always believed that if you receive deep pleasure from an activity then you should give something back to that pursuit. I suppose that is one of that main reasons I began to teach creative writing for adults in night class at the W.I.T and for teenagers with Waterford Youth Arts. One of the usual pitfalls I see new writers fall into again and again is that they often transcribe events from their own lives too faithfully, instead they should use these events, heightened, or made deeper, and most importantly entertaining.

Do you think theatre in Waterford is healthy at present./ If there was anything you could change about it, what would it be?/ There’s a huge amount of young talent coming through at the moment. Do you enjoy working with them?

I have pursued my career in theatre mostly in Waterford for over 20 years now. We are blessed in this city with talent in all aspects of theatre, from writers, actors, singers, production practitioners, directors etc. Where the venture of theatre becomes problematic is when people wish to pursue it as a career in Waterford. If the arts council were to receive from the government what it requires then there might be some hope for those who wish to pursue such a career in their native city. The city is entitled to it. Waterford has sent out it best on-stage talent Brian Doherty, Jaime Beamish, Lynda Gough and Keith Dunphy each of whom had a burning desire to make a career for themselves. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could provide for talent like that in our own place.

If you were stranded on a desert island and could only bring one thing what would it be?

Lately a friend of mine loaned me his MP3 player on which he has recorded every Bob Dylan song with several versions of some tracks- all 775 of them. That’s what I would want on my desert island.

What is your favourite play of all time?

This question nearly scrambled my brain- I went through so many. For some reason, every time I thought of ‘The Glass Menagerie’ by Tennesse Williams I always seemed to pause, so maybe that is my favourite play of all time- Ask me tomorrow and I might have a different answer.

Which writers do you most admire? (one from each medium)

Again my brain went into a whirl with this question but again seemed to pause on local writers Jim Nolan playwright, Mark Roper poet and Colm Tobin novelist (Colm is from Enniscorthy but its near enough to us). Other writers I admire are Leonard Cohen who like Bob Dylan gives us wonderful marriages between melody and lyric in his songs.

I also hear that you are an avid hurling follower- what do you think of our prospects this year?

Sometimes I think I have an unhealthy obsession with this game. If you find yourself pre-season on a wet Saturday afternoon under the Comeragh mountains in a place called Colligan to see a challenge match between Waterford and Wexford I sometimes wonder. But this year, maybe this year we will win the big one and I will be able to say to those that joined the band-wagon- but ‘were you in Colligan in the rain’.

Jim with creative writing class, March 2005

TRIBUTE TO JIM DALY AT THE FUNERAL MASS

I am honoured to have been invited by Bernie and by Jim’s family to pay tribute to a man whom his neighbour, Liam Murphy, recalled in the last few days as ‘our friend, comrade, mate and art maker’. In accepting Bernie’s invitation, I know that I am speaking on behalf of the very many people, here in Waterford and throughout Ireland whose lives and whose art making Jim’s life so deeply enriched.

I had the privilege of Jim’s friendship for more than thirty years. We first met when we were both employed – I use the word advisedly – in the old Dept. of Posts and Telegraphs. Jim was a technician in the Telephone Exchange and as an occasional visitor I soon discovered that the kind of communication he was interested in extended far beyond the confines of telephony and reached instead into the corners of the mind and heart where real communication happens. Often against the background of a breakdown that would have had half the city without a working phone, Jim and his great friend, Eamon Long, could be found calmly holding court on the relative merits of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, or debating the bleak but unflinching vision of Jim’s hero, Samuel Beckett. As a young man, I was grateful to listen in on some of those debates and I remember with particular affection a conversation interrupted by the arrival in the exchange of Jim’s late father and my then boss, Eddie, who, with a combination of exasperation and admiration, asked if our literary salon could be deferred until at least some of the eight hundred subscribers who were out of order could have communication restored.

Communication, of one sort or another, turned out to have been Jim’s lifelong calling. His innate generosity, allied to his deeply held political convictions saw him recognise that the participation in and enjoyment of the arts, which so nourished his life, were worth little if they couldn’t be shared with the community in which he lived and worked. In the early Eighties, he found common purpose in this belief with the Waterford Arts for All Project, whose members determined that access to the arts was the inalienable right of every citizen of our city. The Arts for All Project went on to transform the cultural landscape of Waterford and led, amongst others, to the creation of Garter Lane, Red Kettle, Waterford Youth Arts and Spraoi.

If these groups sprung from the same source, they also have in common that in the two decades and more since their formation, all of them were fortunate to have been graced by the talents and commitment and shining conviction of the man whose life we’ve gathered to celebrate. If the range of Jim’s involvement is staggering, it is hardly surprising, inspired as it was by the unbending and passionate belief that his many gifts belonged not to him alone but to all who had use for them.

My closest connection to Jim was through our work with Red Kettle, of which he was a founder member. As a stage hand, production manager and lighting designer; as a script advisor and company director; as Chairman of our Board and ultimately, as our conscience, no individual contributed more to the dream of providing a professional theatre company for our home place. With good reason, Jim is remembered primarily as a gifted lighting designer. His first professional design was for Athol Fugard’s Hello and Goodbye in 1989, which was reported as ‘lit to perfection’ by the Irish Times. In the years since, Jim’s designs contributed to some of the company’s most memorable productions. He was generous in passing on his skills and his disciples, Marcus Quinlan, Paul Browne, Andy Cummins and Michael Oates, amongst so many others are quick to acknowledge their debt of gratitude to the master. Not least of what they learnt from Jim was that he never considered speed a virtue and that punctuality didn’t have much to recommend it either. Jim took the description ‘laid back’ to levels undreamt of by the ‘beat’ writers he so admired and not the least of his talents was an almost Zen like calm in the midst of chaos. I was never sure whether it was something in his pipe, or maybe some secret ingredient in the salads and quiches which Bernie delivered at regular intervals, but in the white heat of countless nerve wracking technical rehearsals, I often thought of asking.

Jim extended his ‘no hurry’ philosophy to the boardroom of Red Kettle, where, for more than a decade, he presided as Chairman. By the usual standards, he was hardly ideal material for the Chair but Jim was his own man and the stories are legend of Board meetings which ran not for two hours but often for two nights. Those of us who looked forward to a drink at the end of a long meeting were consoled by the knowledge that the Chairman’s eye would, inevitably, turn to the clock some twenty minutes short of closing time; in his wisdom he knew that nothing on our lengthy agendas was so life threatening that it couldn’t be sorted out over a few bottles of stout, with formal business resuming on the following night.

If Jim’s management style owed more to the Russian Politburo than the Harvard School of Business, it was inspired by the belief that everyone’s voice should be heard and that every voice carried equal weight. And if, these days, his way of conducting business is seen as outdated, it should be remembered that it was under his leadership that Red Kettle grew to become one of the leading theatre companies in the State. He was intensely proud of that and even more proud to see that young men and women from the Cork Road and John’s Park, Manor Lawn and Cannon St., Paddy Brown’s Long Road, the Manor and Ballybeg, made plays in and for our own place that went on to grace stages throughout Ireland , Great Britain, the U.S. and Japan - where, the story goes, Jim took time out from a busy lighting schedule to give a master class in Zen Buddhism at the local temple in Toyama.

With respect to his inestimable contribution to Red Kettle, I believe Jim’s most important legacy to local theatre is to his beloved Waterford Youth Arts. His six plays for that company amount, collectively, to an eloquent, authentic and fiercely accurate expression of the joys and terrors encountered by young people on the road out of childhood. They achieved their integrity because they were forged out of Jim’s finely tuned imagination but also because they were written not just for but in rich collaboration with the young actors whose lives and talents, Jim so respected and cherished. And as if those plays were not enough, Jim extended his work with young people into teaching when he undertook a series of creative writing classes for young people. I remember my daughter, who was one of Jim’s students, telling me at the time that he was a wonderful and inspiring teacher – not least, I’m sure, because he had an unshakeable conviction that no-one ever died from encouragement.

Jim’s life was one of service and not just to the arts. An unrepentant and instinctive Socialist, he was a card carrying Labour Party supporter, who would have been as outraged as the rest of us by what happened yesterday at Waterford Crystal. He was a quietly committed swimming instructor for the disabled and an active member of his local resident’s association. Time doesn’t allow for proper acknowledgment of the commitment he made to these and other groups but I know that those who continue his work will know how well he served them.

But if Jim’s was a life of service to his community, he would resist any tribute that portrayed him as a saint and he did find time for other activities. There was the bike of course, the iconic image of the tall man on the black High Nelly, the dark glasses, the long hair and the flowing beard, leaving the streets of Ballybeg behind him and finding grace and wonder on the road to Ballyscanlon. There was his Black Clarke ‘key of C’ tin whistle and his guitar; there was Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan: there was his trademark pipe and the large bottles of stout and the cherished company of his friends. There was soccer in Kilcohan in the glory days and - always there for the long road - soccer in the RSC on winter nights with all hope fading but never quite gone.

And there was hurling. The years of famine and keeping the faith. The joy of those Munster Championships and the National League. The heartbreak of those semi finals in Dublin. The pipe and post mortems and large bottles that helped him believe in next year. And next year, inevitably, coming round. With Mickey Dower and the Tap Room Gang, the pilgrimage beginning again: Colligan in November rain, Walsh Park and Fraher Field in January, Thurles in June, and stretching all the way to Croker in August. How we measured how well he was by whether he was at the match; how the boys always kept a seat in the car or the train; how he never, ever gave up believing - and how, one day, when the team finally bring that cup across the bridge, all any of us will think about is Jim.

And to think of Jim, is indivisibly, to think of Bernie. His timekeeper and chauffeur, his caterer on so many marathon get ins, his secretary, travel planner, and assistant designer, his rock and anchor, his comrade in arms and devoted partner in sickness and health. When I asked Bernie if there was anything in particular she wanted me to say, typically she asked only that I thank the very many people who supported them during Jim’s long illness. On Bernie and the children’s behalf, I thank their many friends and neighbours, the extended Daly and Cunningham families, Doctor Mark Rowe and the staff of the Rowe – Creaven Surgery, Doctor Leonard and the staff of the Oncology Department at WRH, Michael Keating and the staff of Cleaboy Pharmacy, Father Fergal here at St. Saviours Church, the management and staff of Red Kettle, Garter Lane, Waterford Youth Arts and Spraoi, the Area Public Health Nurses and the Home Care Team for whom nothing was too much trouble and who ensured that Jim was able to remain with his family throughout his illness.

That Jim was able to face that illness with such courage and forbearance was due, as all of us know, to Bernie’s unstinting devotion to her husband. In turn, she would want me to acknowledge the extraordinary strength and support of their children, of whom Jim was so proud. I hope that Bernie, Shay and Elaine, Brian, Suzanne and Orla as well as Jim’s brother’s, Eamonn and John and sister Helen, will be consoled in his passing by the sense which I’m sure everyone here shares: that so much of what Jim represented in their lives and in ours will endure.

Much as we’ll grieve him, it is impossible to think that the wise, kind, generous, childlike spirit of a man like Jim Daly won’t survive his passing and that when Bernie and his family and friends need him in the days and years ahead, he won’t be very far away.

I was talking to Jim’s old pal, Tony Cullen a few days back about the lyrics of a Leonard Cohen song, Anthem.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering.
There’s a crack, a crack in everything,
That’s how the light gets in.

Jim knew where the cracks were and – in every sense - he knew how the light got in. And that won’t change.

--Jim Nolan

Ollie: In 1997 we pulled a fast one on Jim Daly when we got a few people to say a few nice words about him in the programme for The Dream Season – devised by the cast with Jimmy Fay Directing. It was a little surprise for Jim and our way of saying thank you for all his support.

I have long admired Jim Daly not only as a lighting director but also as a very committed and creative person. I remember when I was directing ‘Hello Andromeda’ in 1994 and it was a wild and wonderful script with multi-locations and set-pieces and I had extravagant notions that a Drury Lane lighting rig wouldn’t satisfy. Jim arrived at rehearsals with the script broken into provisional lighting areas and he listened to my demands and puffed at his pipe, called up various lighting states and gradually eased me into practicality. His creative view of the play was as strong as mine. But I still wanted loads of lashings of red light for the closing sequence to create a spaceship effect. Jim gave me the technical speech about red being very absorbing and I still wasn’t happy. He puffed at the pipe, gave me a long look that suggested I wasn’t Stephen Speilberg but by opening night I had as much red light it hurt my eyes and I felt that I was at Universal Studios. Such was the practical magic that Jim Created without a tantrum or a harsh word. More power to his pipe. – Liam Murphy

I feel responsible for dragging Jim into the Theatre. We were both working at the Telephone Exchange and I asked him if he would be interested in working backstage for some fledging Red Kettle production. I must have a gift for talent spotting!! All the way through my time with Waterford Youth Drama from ‘Whale’ to ‘The Ancient Mariner’, he was there offering his brilliant talents. He provided vision, inspiration, leadership and friendship. To this day Jim Daly is one of the key figures in the transformation of Waterford’s cultural life. Above all this, he is one of my best friends. – Jim O’Meara (Tonbridge, Kent, England)

In the theatrical world there is often a tension between the actors and the backstage experts. I have known a few stage managers in my long (and extinguished) dramatic career who regarded actors as regrettable intruders into their domain.

Not so Jim Daly. His cool nature helps to put the frayed nerves of the “artistes” in their place. Many of them don’t know what his function really is but they instinctively feel they are in good hands.

I have known several great lighting designers. Names like Hilton Edwards, Jim Fitzgerald, Graham Suter come to mind. Their talent lay in being able to design a lighting plot that complemented the theme and the thrust of the play. But you didn’t notice it at the time.

Jim Daly can pull out all the stops. He can belabour the stage with colour. But he can also interpret the mood of a sensitive scene and set it in an exquisitely planned lighting plot. He can lift a play from the hum drum in a way that sometimes only those closely connected with the production can truly appreciate.

We in Waterford don’t really know what a gem we have in Jim. – Ted O’Regan