50 years on, TGS says "Thank You for the Music"

There was a full house in the Court Hotel on Thursday night of last week when Tullamore Gramophone Society marked its golden jubilee with a special anniversary recital presented by Sean Hackett, a member of the committee elected at the inaugural meeting back in 1959. Current Chairman Catherine Loughman welcomed ten members of the Athlone Gramophone Society who were there to join in the celebration and noted with regret that another of their sister societies, the Mullingar group, had recently disbanded. In Tullamore, the jubilee celebrations continue today (Friday) with an anniversary dinner at which, it is hoped, the attendance may include Rev Michael J Murchan who has been described as the "founding father" of the society. Hon Secretary Kathleen Power noted that Fr Murchan had been elected as chairman at the inaugural meeting, held in Hayes Hotel on February 20, 1959. Continuing, she read extracts from the minutes of the 1960 AGM when Fr Murchan announced his imminent departure from Tullamore, on being appointed to Coole, which a fellow member Minister Rev Stanley Hill described as "the bottom falling out of the universe" for the society. It was suggested that to cope with the possibility of low membership, they should consider securing a guest recitalist from Dublin and that members of the Birr, Athlone and Mullingar societies be invited to present programmes. Happily, these fears proved unfounded. Fifty years on, membership in Tullamore is at a record level and even with some "job sharing" there are more than enough members prepared to take a turn at giving recitals. No doubt the privilege of presenting the anniversary programme was assigned to Sean Hackett because he had been "in at the birth" of the Society but his contribution was far more than just a suitable historical link. Catering for a wide range of musical tastes it was thoroughly enjoyable, informative and highly entertaining. In short, it provided an excellent example of the standard of programming which has done so much to ensure the success of the Society in its first 50 years. Looking back to the first recital by Fr Murchan, Sean recalled that it had featured a demonstration of stereophonic sound, a new technology just being developed at the time. He remembered the interest aroused by being able to trace a table tennis ball being struck and returned from opposite ends of the table, and the effect of hearing a train running across the room. In thanking the Tullamore Society for the very generous welcome and a lovely night"s music, Noel Henry, President of the Athlone Society, said it had brought back memories of the Music for Middlebrows programmes presented on Radio Éireann for a number of years by Des Keogh. Endorsing the comments by the Tullamore Chairman about the importance of the gramophone he remarked on how lucky they were that John McCormack had not been born 25 years earlier.