By Gerry Moran
In April, 1993, my brother John, domiciled in Dublin for the last sixty years, popped down to Kilkenny. Over a coffee I asked what he got up to on his visit? ‘Mocky’ he said (‘Mocky’, from the Irish mac, meaning son, which he always called me as he was more of a father to me being almost a decade older) ‘I went into the Savoy Cinema about to open as Kilkenny’s brand new Watergate Theatre and asked if I could take a few photos. I told them I was from Kilkenny and, as a youngster, loved going to the ‘pictures’ in the Savoy. They very kindly allowed to take some snaps.’ What a great idea, I thought, and over the next twenty years or so I regularly dropped into the Watergate Theatre and with the blessing of Gerry Cody, the Manager, Mick Kavanagh (RIP) and other backstage staff I took numerous photos of shows that were being performed there. And so, on this the thirtieth anniversary of the Watergate’s opening, here are some of those photos, a precious record, I like to think, of the early days of the Watergate and all thanks to my ‘Big Brother’, John and the graciousness of Gerry Cody, Mick Kavanagh (RIP), Ben Little (RIP) and many others.
