From The Archives - April 19th, 1954:The Tóstal was an annual festival held around Easter during the 1950s and aimed at attracting tourists to Ireland with its displays of Irishness. The opening event in the second Tóstal was a weekend pageant, described in this report, re-enacting the arrival of St Patrick (played by Anew MacMaster) in Co Louth and his conversion of the pagan kings at Tara.
The prosperous Co Louth town of Drogheda and, indeed, the entire Boyne valley had on Saturday morning the expectant atmosphere of a vast theatre before curtain-up. Such an air was more than justified.
The curtain was about to be raised on the most ambitious open-air pageant ever staged in either this or the neighbouring island and the first attempt in any European country, other than Greece, to represent historic happenings on the actual scenes where they had originally taken place.
The events portrayed – surely some of the most inspiring and significant in the history of this country – were the arrival of St Patrick and his first conquest of the old pagan gods of Ireland, 15 centuries ago.
This Patrician Pageant was the fruit of six months’ work on the part of nearly 2,000 people in all walks of life in two counties – Louth and Meath – under the skilful co-ordination of that proved “pageant master,” Captain J A Dowling, lent specially for the purpose by the Department of Defence. To Drogheda, therefore, went the well-merited honour of staging the opening event of the 1954 Tóstal, when the national flag was hoisted in the Viaduct field on Saturday afternoon in the presence of the Taoiseach, Mr de Valera, and between 7,000 and 10,000 people.
Mr de Valera, in a brief speech, thanked both An Bord Fáilte and the Tara Central Council for having conferred on him the honour of ringing up the curtain on what he described as a fitting prelude to the Tóstal.
When this short opening ceremony was staged, the week-end representation of the saint’s return to a land where he had once been held captive, to release the Irish from their captivity to paganism was started by a cast of over 1,500 actors – men, women and children. Against a musical background – provided by pre-recordings from choirs of the Drogheda Operatic Society, the Augustinians, Drogheda; the Dominicans, St Mary’s School, St Patrick’s, the Presentation Convent, the Christian Brothers, the Kells Choir, the Trim CBS, and St Mary’s Navan – the story of St Patrick’s landing on the Co Louth coast was told.
The landing of the saint, admirably represented by Anew MacMaster, whose gestures were in scale with the setting, was taken at rather too slow a pace, but when the hunting party of the villagers returned from the hill the pace quickened and the pageant came to life. Mac Master’s parley with the local chieftain, as played by Thomas Mannion, was excellent.
On Saturday evening the scene changed to the natural 14-acre amphitheatre facing Slane Castle, the residence of Lord Mountcharles.
In defiance of the laws of the High King Laoighaire (admirably played by Godfrey Quigley), St Patrick once again lighted the Paschal fire. Then entered the entire army, headed by Laoighaire, accompanied by his queen (Pauline Flanagan) and his princesses, as represented by Mary Rose MacMaster and Gloria Breslin.
Last night the pageant came to a magnificent climax on the storied Hill of Tara. On the actual summit of the hill, the trial of the apostle by the high priests (Pat McGee and Trealach Hennessy) was re-enacted on the historic site of Gráinne’s Rath.
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