Romancing Ireland

About

Richard Hayward celebrated in story and song

For decades the multi-talented Richard Hayward (1892-1964) was a household name in Ulster and one of Ireland's most important cultural figures. Hayward was by turns a successful actor, director playwright, travel writer, musician and singer. What shone through all of his work was his love of Ireland; its people, stories, landscape music and songs. Frequently, on his travels, he came across impromptu concerts and kitchen house ceilidhs, observing performers and paying particular attention to the lyrics and melodies of rare ballads or mournful laments. His 1925 his anthology of Ulster songs and ballads of the town and the country made a vital contribution to our folklore heritage.

Folk-singers Maurice Leyden and Jane Cassidy have teamed up with Hayward's biographer Paul Clements to present a show celebrating Richard Hayward's contribution to the cultural life of the island of Ireland, through anecdote and folk-ballads. A glance down the list of songs Hayward recorded with such luminaries as Delia Murphy and Sean Maguire, reveal that many of them are still part of the folk-repertoire today; testament to Hayward's contribution to the preservation of Irish folk ballads.

As a singer he recorded 156 records for major labels and sang to packed houses at concerts and festivals across Ireland. Many of his plays were performed in the Gaiety and Abbey theatres in Dublin as well as the Empire in Belfast. Along with Tyrone Guthrie, he formed the Belfast Radio Players who broadcast regularly on the BBC. Known as 'The Father of the Irish Film Industry' Hayward made three major feature films. On the opening night of Ulster Television, 31 October, 1959, Sir Laurence Olivier introduced Richard Hayward as 'Ireland's son with the minstrel hand.'