The Mechanics' Hall, also known as the Hibernian Theatre of Varieties, was a

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

and music hall in Lower Abbey Street,

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

. It stood at the site of the current

Abbey Theatre The Abbey Theatre ( ga, Amharclann na Mainistreach), also known as the National Theatre of Ireland ( ga, Amharclann Náisiúnta na hÉireann), in Dublin, Ireland, is one of the country's leading cultural institutions. First opening to the pu ...

at 26 Lower Abbey Street. A theatre or circus has stood on this site on Lower Abbey Street since at least the early 19th century. In the mid-19th century, at the urging of Dublin's gentry, John Classon, an upper-class merchant, acquired the buildings then on the site, one of which had housed a circus, in order to establish a joint concert hall and civic institution for the lower classes. Those buildings became the Music Hall and the Mechanics' Institute. The Music Hall, which could seat 4000 persons, hosted concerts, lectures, and popular entertainments. The renowned black American abolitionist

Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became ...

lectured at the Music Hall in 1845 during a four-month visit to Ireland. In 1850 and 1851

Pablo Fanque Pablo Fanque (born William Darby; 30 March 1810 – 4 May 1871) was a British equestrian performer and circus proprietor, becoming the first recorded Black circus owner in Britain. His circus was popular in Victorian Britain for 30 years, a p ...

, the popular black equestrian and circus owner (immortalised later in

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

' song ''

Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" is a song recorded by the English rock band the Beatles for their 1967 album ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band''. It was written and composed primarily by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. ...

'') played to near-capacity Dublin crowds for weeks. During a March 1851 performance of Pablo Fanque's Circus Royal police were called in to quell a riot when playgoers threatened to riot and destroy the theatre in protest to the winner of a "conundrum" contest.The Caledonian Mercury, 3 April 1851 In the later 19th century, in the 1860s, the Music Hall was renamed the Mechanics' Theatre, after the adjacent Mechnanic's Institute. Mary Browne, mother of

Shaun Glenville Shaun Glenville (born John Browne; 16 May 1884 – 28 December 1968) was an Irish actor who specialised in pantomime performances - he would play the dame while his wife Dorothy Ward would play the principal boy. The music hall historian ...

was manager of the theatre for a time.

Seán O'Casey Seán O'Casey ( ga, Seán Ó Cathasaigh ; born John Casey; 30 March 1880 – 18 September 1964) was an Irish dramatist and memoirist. A committed socialist, he was the first Irish playwright of note to write about the Dublin working classes. ...

once appeared on stage there in a production of ''The Shaughraun'' by

Dion Boucicault Dionysius Lardner "Dion" Boucicault (né Boursiquot; 26 December 1820 – 18 September 1890) was an Irish actor and playwright famed for his melodramas. By the later part of the 19th century, Boucicault had become known on both sides of the ...

. The theatre was also known during this time as the Hibernian Theatre of Varieties, a name it retained until the building was acquired for the

at the beginning of the 20th century.

References

Other references

*Igoe, Vivien. ''A Literary Guide to Dublin''. (Methuen, 1994) *Ryan, Philip B. ''The Lost Theatres of Dublin''. (The Badger Press, 1998) Abbey Theatre Theatres in Dublin (city) {{Ireland-theat-struct-stub