Bridie Gallagher: The Girl From Donegal by Jim Livingstone

Author:Jim Livingstone
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Vearsa

Poster for Bridie’s cabaret appearance in Glenamaddy, County Galway, from August 1978.

She also continued most years to do concert tours of the US and Canada, such as one organised by Senator Dan Kiely in 1972. This was a rather unique venture, which combined Bridie’s performances at venues across five different states from New York to Illinois with a simultaneous tour of the Kerry GAA football team. They played local GAA teams in every city where she performed. The size of Irish-American audiences that turned up at venues was staggering. It reinforced once again the reality that, while Bridie’s popularity in Ireland had diminished to some extent in the wake of the 1960s pop and showband era, in America she was still a major star. She did numerous interviews on the main Irish-American radio stations and even entertained Senator Edward Kennedy in Boston at a fundraising dinner on that tour.

Bridie was often asked about the best venue she had performed in. She played many of the world’s great concert halls and theatres, as well as dance halls and cabaret clubs. But while the London Palladium was probably the pinnacle of her long career, there is one venue she played only once and it remained her favourite by far: the Sydney Opera House. She was flown to Australia specifically for one concert in that most magnificent and iconic building on Monday 11 April 1977.

She loved the shell-like structure and stood for a long time admiring its unique and beautiful shape and style. There are several different-sized concert halls in the massive complex, plus function rooms of all kinds. The main auditorium has a massive stage with people seated in a vast semi-circle that rises majestically to the high ceiling. That enormous stage would have been frightening to walk onto, except that most of it was occupied by a full orchestra.

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