1914 : Opera in Sligo

Reading old newspapers is fascinating especially the things you come across which have nothing to do with what you are looking for.

If you lived in Sligo in January 1914 you might have been interested in politics in which case you would certainly have read the Sligo Champion editorial on how 1914 was going to be the year of Home Rule when an Irish Parliament returned to Dublin (The Great War put paid to that!).

You might in fact have been more interested in the feast of opera in the Town Hall all the week with six different shows available. The company was the Elster Grime Company from Wexford I think.

This is the same company mentioned by Joyce in the Circe episode of Ulysses:

Could I go to see Leah tonight, I wonder. I said I. Or the Lily of Killarney ? Elster Grimes Opera Company. Big powerful change. Wet bright bills for next week.

The company was performing Lily of Killarney at the Queen's Royal Theatre in Dublin on Bloomsday 1904 though Joyce got the company's name wrong - Grime not Grimes.