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http://youtu.be/ZcPVi7hqfXA
(rickbaker/YouTube)
“WE’RE ALL IRISH,” the Fab Four smiled at journalists when they landed at Dublin airport on 7 November 1963, collars popped up to shield their youthful faces from the Irish wind.
Affable, funny and media-savvy, the Beatles were in Ireland for their only Irish gigs – in Dublin and Belfast – and from their first entrance it was clear they were here to charm their dedicated Irish fans, and then some.
Their two Dublin gigs at the Adelphi cinema on Middle Abbey St were sold-out, but the crowds thronged to the venue, desperate to get a look at their favourite mop-topped musicians.
Among them was Fr Brian D’Arcy, who was ticketless but had sneaked out of Mount Argus in Kimmage, where he was an 18-year-old trainee priest.
Inside the building was journalist Éanna Brophy, who had a badge that proclaimed him a ‘treasurer’ but who was really there to meet the Beatles for the teen magazine Miss.
For both men, the Beatles gigs were remarkable, and demonstrated how different Ireland was becoming in swinging Sixties.
When the Beatles first arrived, there was a small handful of fans outside, recalled Brophy. He was “totally into the Beatles”, and went along to meet the band at about 4pm. All he needed to gain access was a badge given to him by a member of staff.
“Today you’d need about 25 different badges to get talking to anyone like that,” joked Brophy of his shop-bought badge. At 4.30pm, the Beatles arrived at the venue to “a little bit of a screech” from the assembled female fans.
Fans talk to the press outside the Adelphi. Pic: YouTube
Brophy remembers there being about 20 journalists and photographers present.
They were still fairly new at this time. They were on the crest of the very first wave. I was kind of clued into who they were but some journalists didn’t have a clue who they were and were asking them silly questions.
Paul McCartney “was very much the same person he is today, full of chat and cracking jokes”, while John Lennon answered Brophy’s question of “what’s the difference between rhythm and blues and rock and roll?” with a deadpan “rhythm and blues is black”.
Brophy also asked if the screaming crowds at their shows were frustrating; Lennon told him it was fine – “as long as everyone’s having a good time”.
“Before that, pop singers had a reputation as being dumb or thick,” said Brophy. “[The Beatles] were sparking on all cylinders and so on.”
Even the cynical photographers were won over by the Beatles, as the foursome asked “do you want a four column photo?” They had well-rehearsed poses for whatever picture was required, including one where they perched with one head poised on top of the other’s.
Although the press call was short, George Harrison – who had lots of relations in Dublin – “vanished very early on”.
After the interview, Brophy and a few other journalists waited around upstairs for the gig (the Beatles played two gigs that night, along with a number of other bands). Brophy remembered having fun up in the boardroom as the street outside got busier and busier. “A few of us were combing our hair forward and looking out the window, and the girls were screaming,” he laughed.
“A garda was sent up to say ‘stop that’.”
“The gardaí were kind of expecting a certain amount of fans,” said Brophy, but perhaps not the amount that arrived. The crowd exiting the Adelphi after the first gig came streaming out as the crowd for the next gig was trying to get in, leading to some panic.
Amidst the pushing and heaving, people jumped up on parked cars, said Brophy. “Eventually, the gardaí began to shove people back out of the street onto O’Connell St and a few cars were turned over.”
The photographs in the paper the following morning were quite something – the Beatles had certainly left a mark on the city.
The gig
The gig itself was “electrifying”, said Brophy. “There was just screaming going on, no matter who was on stage there were people screaming.”
The Beatles began their set from behind the large red curtains, increasing the sense of anticipation, and opened with I Saw Her Standing There. When the curtains were pulled back, the already incredible noise “went up even louder”.
After their second and final show in Dublin, the Beatles made a clever and swift exit, bundled into a newspaper van that was parked by the Adelphi’s back door.
Brophy thinks the Beatles were huge because “pop music had gone into a slump”, and they helped bring it back to the early days of rock and roll.
Sneaking out
The Beatles in Newry Pic: YouTube
Unlike Brophy, Fr Brian D’Arcy didn’t have a ticket to see the Beatles – but that didn’t stop him sneaking out to try and catch their Dublin gigs.
He had entered religious life and at the age of 18 “considered myself to be up-to-date on everything”.
But after a year without contact with the outside world – no papers, no TV, no radio – “the Beatles had arrived and I didn’t know who the Beatles were”.
The young Fr D’Arcy was “very put out about this”, so when he saw that the Beatles were due in Dublin, he decided to go. But in his “innocence” he had no idea how big they actually were.
After evening prayers, he dressed, climbed out the window, got on his bicycle at Mount Argus and rode the 3.5 miles to the city centre.
The first thing he saw on his arrival was the huge crowd swarming outside the Adelphi.
Abbey St was utterly, utterly mad at that time. So I had no idea what was happening. It was a complete flummox to me… Young ones fainting, shouting and screaming.
It was quite a shock for “a young fellow from the country” but still he persisted, getting to within 20 yards of the door of the Adelphi.
But after being “pushed back by screaming girls” and even stood on by them in the crush, he decided “my virtue was more important that the Beatles” and turned around, hopped back on his bicycle and headed home.
For 40 years, Fr D’Arcy never spoke of his nighttime trip to see the Beatles, but that night left its mark on him.
It taught him “the world had changed an awful lot” in the time he was away.
“I learned a lot that night out of fear; that the world I am living in is not this world.
“I probably couldn’t put words on it, but I knew that there was a world here if I was going to be a priest – I was going to have to be involved in this world of music and world of pop culture of the 1960s.”
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Why may I ask have you shown a picture of a defib that mostly only the ambulance service has ?? Why not a pic of one commonly found in every parish in Ireland, much sipmlear to use, and not as intimidating to look at ?
@Fox Trot: If you’re intimidated by a picture of a defib, you’ve got alot more to worry about
@Philip Dunne: Anyone who is not used to being around medical equipment may well be put off by a more complicated machine. Especially as they would be in a crisis situation with a person having a cardiac arrest. As a teenager I was present for 3 of my fathers cardiac arrests. It was a very scary experience as I was the only one with him. It’s worth noting that the defibrillators are very easy to use and verbally walk you through the use of it so all you have to do is follow the instructions. I have a very good and generous friend here in Limerick who fundraising for defibrillators . They are then put in spots all over the city. I wish I had known cpr when my father was having his cardiac arrests . My Dad survived with with damage to the back wall of his heart. He is still here though 40 years on from his first cardiac arrest.
@Philip Dunne: you’ve obviously a lot to learn bud !!!!!
Can’t understand why this isn’t taught at school. Another practical skill for real life preperation !
@Martina Keogh: There’s an excellent idea.
@Martina Keogh: should really be started a national school level. But transition year is a great opportunity for schools to bring this in. Should be made mandatory for schools to train it.
@Martina Keogh: first aid and CPR should be a part of the junior cert science syllabus for sure.
@Martina Keogh: I am a community responder who has gone into schools to train CPR to TY students
I tried to find where to go to learn CPR locally which was not easy and I was passed to person to person without effective result.
@Gillian Weir Scully: now you point to a real problem. I agree that courses on CPR are not easily accessible.
As a first step, the Irish Heart guide on CPR, which can be downloaded from the link given in the article, is clear and usable but a CPR course would give more effective results.
@Gillian Weir Scully: if there is any local voluntary ambulance services on your area such as order of Malta they provide training to the public at a competitive price with a pre hospital emergency care council approved course and cert upon completion, this means that the cpr training you received is recognised as best practice in the field and is in line with the internationally recognised chain of survival. Before taking any training for cpr with the use of a defib make sure the training provider is recognised by phecc.
@David o Gorman: I did not know that. Informative and sound advice to Gillian Weir Scully and the rest of us. Thanks.
@Gillian Weir Scully: Contact me on turnaroundsafety@gmail.com and I will pass you on all details of CPR and First aid courses in your area. Dave
@Gillian Weir Scully: St Johns Ambulance do a whole host of courses from First aid to emerengency first responder and I’m sure the Red Cross or the Order of Malta do the same. Please contact any of them in your area. I personally have had great experience with St Johns Ambulance but I’m sure the others are just as good .
@Gillian Weir Scully: We run them for free and would be only too willing to help if we can, I’m an instructor with the Irish heart foundation.
@Gillian Weir Scully: a good place to start is to join your local red cross. There you’ll not only learn CPR in a friendly environment with lots of people who quickly become tight friends, but also many other life saving first aid techniques, some of which are very advanced (which ) is why the Red Cross often takes part in rescues, is used as medics at matches and gatherings etc.
Well worth checking out if your town has a Red Cross.
The Order of Malta is another place where you can volunteer and learn all the lifesaving first aid
And it’s fun to top it all off.
I have downloaded and printed out the Irish Heart Guide to CPR. I propose to avail of a course on CPR.
I think that we could do far more to address prevention of heart disease in Ireland. Prevention is better than cure.
Once this is infarction, the heart muscle is damaged and cardiac function is compromised.
We need to work together as a community to emphasise prevention.
@Tony Daly: Try St Johns Ambulance locally . Their courses are very high quality and are often given by advanced paramedics who are on the frontline everyday .
My husband’s heart attack didn’t present itself as a pain in the chest, arm or back, it was a severe abdominal pain much akin to trapped wind, so I made him a hot cup of tea with a small amount of Epsom salt, didn’t work, but the pain abated. Two days later the pain worsened and the only reason I rushed him to ER was because his skin turned grey and he was drenched in sweat. He was very lucky to survive, if we had stayed at home he would have died within the hour. Later it dawned on me that he was the same age as his dad and his uncle were when they died of a heart attack with exactly the same symptoms. It is essential to know both CPR and be aware of family history and recognising the different ways a heart attack can present itself.
It’d be great if there was an app that could instantly tell people where the nearest defib to them was and could deliver the unlock codes and allow people to update it with new locations for AEDs.
Terrifying to think one could be so totally at the mercy of everyone else and whether they’d been able to do CPR training. It should be compulsorily taught in schools.
CPR courses should be mandatory in primary and secondary schools. No brainer really.
In Dublin Safety Ireland run CPR courses every Friday, in Terenure.
Outside Dublin if you get a group together they can come and train you.
Safety Ireland is an approved training site for the Irish Heart Foundation & the Pre-hospital Emergency Care Council.
I’m fundraising for Happy Hearts in Clonmel today.Please support.
Recently completed a refresher on CPR l’d hate to be in the position of not being able to help some having a heart attack.
@Kerry Blake: yeah i need to do CPR training. We all should.
What a dumb comment to make
@Kevin Cross: no comment is a dumb comment
While walking over a bridge in Galway I remember having to stop a member of public performing CPR on a patient that had a pulse and was in a diabetic coma. When the paramedics arrived he was looking for praise saying he saved his life. Pity
If you want to learn a CPR, a good place to start is to join your local red cross. There you’ll not only learn CPR in a friendly environment with lots of people who quickly become tight friends, but also many other life saving first aid techniques, some of which are very advanced (which ) is why the Red Cross often takes part in rescues, is used as medics at matches and gatherings etc.
Well worth checking out if your town has a Red Cross.
The Order of Malta is another place where you can volunteer and learn all the lifesaving first aid
And it’s fun to top it all off.
have your say