“A Sketch in Time”
By John O’Shea

Sometime, probably in the early 40s, we had a Dramatic Society in Bantry and I suppose the peak of our efforts was a play by Lennox Robinson called “The Far-Off Hills”.  We performed this play in The Stella Cinema and our tutor was Joe Sullivan, or Joe Gouchy, as we called him for some unknown reason.
This was a big 3-Act effort and we were all scared stiff that we would forget our lines (and some of us did).
I still have the book of the play, but unfortunately I only have a couple of the names of the cast; Nancy O’Donoghue (Station Master’s daughter), myself (playing a dopey local), John (“Doxer”) McCarthy of Cove Road, and my friend Tommy Hourihan.
It was a comedy anyway, and the audience had a good laugh at our efforts.
Around that time, I was an inveterate “doodler” and drew a few sketches in the book of the play – they depict a couple of local characters of the time, and also “The Hospital Ward” ( a comedy sketch) and one or two others for no apparent reason.
I should mention that all our rehearsals were held in the Convent, in one of the classrooms.