A LONG-HELD dream for Irish theatre has been realised with the opening of The Lir National Academy of Dramatic Art at Trinity College Dublin, its director said last night.
Loughlin Deegan said the academy would not just provide education but had the potential to “renew and inspire” the Irish theatre, film and television industries.
Actors, designers, directors, playwrights, stage managers and theatre technicians will be trained in Trinity-accredited courses at the purpose-built premises on Pearse Street.
The first 23 students of acting and scriptwriting were among those at the opening, which was attended by well-known industry faces such as Saoirse Ronan, Sebastian Barry, Alan Stanford and Pat Shortt.
Ronan said the new academy would be “a really brilliant place for young Irish creative people to go and learn about their craft”.
The acting students expressed particular delight at the opportunity to train in Ireland.
“A lot of the time people go to London and got stuck there. I don’t want that, I want to be part of the Irish theatre industry,” said student Karen McCartney from Carlow, who acted when she was a child and returned to the profession in the past two years.
“For me it was London or here,” said Hannah Carnegie from Belfast. She is from a theatre family and had spent four years trying to get into drama school and trying to break into the London scene.
“This such a brilliant opportunity for generations of younger Irish actors,” she said.
Student Liam Heslin from Longford had previously done some training but valued the weight this course would give him.
“It can be hard to break into certain theatres without some credentials. But with this training I will have that when I come out,” he said.
As with many, he expressed a hope to stay and work in Irish theatre. “If I was working from play to play in the Abbey, the Gate or Project for the rest of my life I think I’d be happy,” he said.
Student Vanessa Matias Fahy, who had done some past training in New York, said: “I’d never never had conservatory-type training before and it didn’t seem that it was going to be in my future.”
Danielle Ryan, whose late father Cathal Ryan’s trust funded the development of The Lir, said that without such an academy “we end up losing a lot of talent abroad”.
Provost of Trinity College Dublin Dr Patrick Prendergast described it as a “seminal moment in the history of Trinity College Dublin and indeed Ireland”.
The Lir had emerged “out of the ashes” of TCD’s degree in acting studies, which was discontinued a few years ago, he said.
