"HURLING; Shandon; the Father Matthew statue; panto in the Opera House." Billa O'Connell names the foundation stones of Cork tradition. "We never go away from the story. Ours is a strictly, strictly traditional panto. We're very traditional in Cork."
You know where you stand with Billa O'Connell: up to your nostrils in the River Lee. He has been the panto dame every Christmas in a Cork panto since 1948, and for most of that time he has been performing at the Cork Opera House. It's a fitting way for a man who was born on Christmas Day to punctuate his life. Cinderella was the first panto in which he performed, and Cinderella is also this year's offering, the most popular of all panto stories.
Generations of young Corkonians have looked forward to Billa's panto as their Christmas treat: "You'd meet a girl with her kids on the street and she'd say her mother brought her to the panto too", he says. He has done his best to swell the panto audience himself, having six children and many grandchildren who are apparently famous for shouting, "It's behind you, grandad!" at crucial moments.
This year he is an ugly sister, but he loves being a goodie: "With the children, there's nothing better than being a granny for the show. You're a goodie, and the children are with you from the start. You wouldn't swap with any man. Cross dressing, which has gone out in most Dublin pantos, still holds sway in Cork (I'm talking strictly pantomime here). True, the prince is no longer a girl - Billa says that television made that implausible for children: "We've had wonderful Principal Boys. Tony Kenny was great, I was his mother for many years." But the panto dame still rules in Cork over her traditional dominions.
Billa remembers Jimmy O'Dea as a "wonderful artist", but a Cork dame, Ignatius Comerford, was a great inspiration. Paddy Comerford, his cousin, is his fellow ugly sister in this show. Irene Warren, on holiday from Les Miserables in London, is Cinders but mostly it is a team tried by time, with Michael Twomey (Cha of Cha and Miah) writing and directing: "It's a very happy gang with the very same old faces, and wee never fall out and we have a good laugh."
CERTAINLY, there are fewer pantos now: "There's TV and videos and all, sweetheart. If it's a wet day they can slap in a video."
But Cork audiences are loyal to what Billa calls "a real family show, no dirt." And as his deep Cork tones fade down a phone he describes as "shagged up a small bit", you want to be a five year old building a life on four foundation stones: hurling, Shandon, the Father Matthew statue, and the panto at the Cork Opera House.