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The first of an eight-part series by Jerry O’Neill I commissioned for The Irish Post in the 90s. Described as the laureate of the London Irish, he wrote two great books, Open Cut and Duffy Is Dead. His pub was a hub of Irish culture - Trad music and the Sugawn Kitchen theatre
Jerry O’Neill, author, publican and founder of the Sugawn Kitchen Theatre, drops a few big names and recalls a police raid looking for arms when Shadow of a Gunman was being rehearsed. This is grade A social and cultural history of the Irish in London in the Seventies
Jerry O’Neill on the thriving traditional music scene in his Duke of Wellington pub in Hackney and the brewery barons who ruined the trade
Last of the series of Jerry O’Neill’s memoirs but I may find more
Jerry O’Neill concludes his Irish Post series looking back on his days running the Duke of Wellington and Sugawn Kitchen on London’s Balls Pond Road, a vital Irish community and cultural hub. Great pic includes Irish-American author Tim O’Grady in a production of Finnegans Wake!
Jerry O’Neill, author and publican, on what inspired him to turn his pub’s billiard room into the Sugawn Kitchen, an Irish cultural hub in London for many years.
Jerry O’Neill: “Special Branch in Aran sweaters, looking very Irish, would be somewhere in the crowd, looking for men with cloaks and daggers. Men, in the casual fashion of the moment, left their cloaks and daggers at home.”
A short film about Jerry O’Neill, which also features interviews with Shane Connaughton, Eoghan Harris and Roy Foster. https://irishculturalcentre.co.uk/2020/07/10/film-jerry-oneill/
A Guardian obituary by Kevin O’Connor https://www.theguardian.com/news/1999/jun/14/guardianobituaries3
Jerry O’Neill surely deserves a revival of critical interest, and a starting point for anybody interested in Irish London is the fully realised dark comedy of Duffy is Dead, writes Ken Worpole https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/why-i-love-duffy-is-dead-by-jm-o-neill-1.2004120?mode=amp
