Kelly, (Patrick) Colm

by Linde Lunney

Kelly, (Patrick) Colm (1925–2002), director of Athlone Drama Festival, was born 19 January 1925 in Dysart, Co. Roscommon, youngest son in a family of seven sons and one daughter of Denis Joseph Kelly and his wife Fanny Lucy (née Power or Le Poer), who was born in Devonshire, England. Colm's father, Denis Joseph Kelly (1858–1929), farmer and licensed grocer, was born in Co. Galway, of a family well known in the area. Family tradition states that Denis Joseph's father was Denis Henry Kelly of Castle Kelly (1797–1877), MRIA, a protestant landowner, who was a notable book collector and scholar of the Irish language. Denis Joseph, though he had early connections with the Church of Ireland, seems to have become a catholic. In the early 1880s he was imprisoned several times for organising boycotts and other activities in support of the Land League and the Independent Irish Party. Charles Stewart Parnell (qv), Éamon de Valera (qv), and Michael Collins (qv), all visited the Kelly home. De Valera was godfather to one of his children, but Kelly supported the 1921 treaty and remained friendly with Collins. In the 1890s he made the transition from agrarian activism to involvement in local government, at a time when, in many aspects of life in Ireland, people from a nationalist and catholic background replaced members of the landed gentry in local government. He was chairman of the Board of Guardians of Athlone Poor Law Union on a number of occasions (including 1891 and 1910), chairman of Roscommon County Council (1919), and chairman of the board of governors of Ballinasloe asylum. On a visit to Dublin on 15 July 1929, when his youngest son Colm was just four years old, he was killed when knocked down by a bus on College Green. His widow, Fanny, though English-born, was of an Anglo-Irish family and committed to Irish culture; she was related to Timothy Daniel Sullivan (qv) and also to the Le Poer Trench family. Her brother Francis Hugh Power (1880–1955) was passionate about the Irish language, active in Conradh na Gaeilge and used the pseudonym 'An Paorach'. Along with a protestant woman, Emily Weddall (1867–1952), he founded an Irish language summer school, Scoil Acla, on Achill Island, Co. Mayo.

Colm Kelly, named for his godfather, the poet Padraic Colum (qv), attended the Christian Brothers school in Roscommon town, and was a student at UCD. He briefly worked in the British merchant navy as a radio officer, but returned to Ireland having qualified in physiotherapy and chiropody, and set up a practice in Athlone. Almost immediately he got involved with amateur drama in Athlone's Little Theatre; in the 1940s and 1950s, before the advent of television, amateur drama was a major part of social and cultural life in almost all towns and rural areas throughout the country. Athlone was even more involved than most places, because the All-Ireland Drama Festival was established in the town in 1953, bringing hundreds of amateur groups to compete there for the country's premier awards. In 1957 Colm Kelly took part in the festival in the Athlone production of 'Shadow and substance', by Paul V. Carroll (qv), and also played the same part later in the week for a rival company, Mitchelstown Drama Group, whose own actor was taken ill.

For almost fifty years Kelly was a stalwart of Athlone Little Theatre, in production and organisational capacities and as an accomplished actor. He took over as director of the Athlone festival in 1992, after the death of Brendan O'Brien (1918–92), who had been director since the festival started. Kelly was director for ten years, during which time he expanded the festival and consolidated its importance. He also initiated plans to transform the Dean Crowe Hall, the festival's venue, into a modern and impressive theatre. The re-development was completed in time for the festival's fiftieth anniversary season, but Kelly had died some months earlier. The Colm Kelly memorial prize for the best stage setting was established in his memory. He was also involved in other aspects of civic life in Athlone; in 1977 he chaired a group that introduced local radio to the town, and in 1978 he was chairman of the Athlone community services council. He was for many years active in the Old Athlone Society, as chairman and secretary, and in the town's golf club.

He married Dr Patricia Elliott from Athlone on 8 August 1955; of their three children, one son survived to adulthood. His eldest brother, Denis J. Kelly, fought for the nationalists in the Spanish civil war in support of Franco, later served in the Irish army, and in 1966 was appointed North American manager of operations for Aer Lingus. Colm Kelly died on 6 October 2002 in Ballinasloe Hospital, Co. Galway.