The New Blue Plaque and the play Ruby!
Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2019 9:32 am
On Friday 15th February 2019 I visited Belfast to represent the UK Ruby fans at these two special events.
After years of pressure and effort by Bernie and Michael Cameron, the Ulster History Circle managed to secure funding from the Belfast City Council to erect a Blue Plaque in remembrance of the amazing achievements of a local girl. The plaque is placed on the wall of number 337 Donegall Road, which is where The Greater Village Regeneration Trust is located. This is a charity organisation which looks after the people living in the same area where Ruby used to live. As neither of the two homes in Moltke Street and Benburb Street where she lived is still standing, the Ulster History Circle decided to place the plaque in the Donegall Road and indeed this is quite a busy road so it should be noticed by lots of passers by.
Tim and Julie (Ruby and Bernie's son and daughter) were there and shared the honours of unveiling the plaque by each pulling on a draw cord. Tim also made a short speech to the many onlookers who had gathered there for the event. After the short ceremony, we were invited into a room where refreshments were served. We were entertained by Duke Special, who as a Belfast singer has performed several of Ruby's songs in his act. He sang and played the keyboard, and some films were shown of Ruby herself singing and talking. Also included that afternoon were various tributes given to Ruby's life.
This plaque is in addition to the one unveiled several years ago outside the Ulster Hall, and which is now located inside for better protection. I think there cannot be too many people from Belfast who have the honour of both a brown plaque and a blue plaque in the city!
I was then invited by Michael Cameron to join him at a matinée performance of the play he has scripted, which was currently running at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast. As all the evening performances had sold out soon after opening day, extra matinée performances were added to cater for the demand. I have to say that there was not a spare seat at the one which I was fortunate to attend. The play is a one act, one actress monologue with Ruby played by Libby Smyth, and her words are interspersed with extracts from Ruby's most famous records. Libby gives a powerful, dramatic performance of the events in Ruby's life, both happy and tragic ones. I was told in advance that the play starts with Ruby near the sad end of her life, sitting in the nursing home waiting for Bernie to visit her. I will admit to not being too enthusiastic at the thought of this! However, very soon Libby starts relating the events of Ruby's life, thankfully in the order in which they occurred, as Ruby remembers her life. When they are happy events, Libby plays a happy person, and when they are sad she acts accordingly. The music in a very subtle fashion echoes the story at the moment, for example the meeting with Bernie is followed by a short extract of Ruby singing Mr Wonderful. Libby does not attempt to impersonate Ruby in speaking and does not attempt to sing her songs. Of course we all realised that the play is a drama not a documentary, so the words she speaks are those which Ruby is likely to have spoken given the events that were happening at the time. But they are fashioned in a brilliant way which serves to portray all the ups and downs in our dear Ruby's life.
I was very moved by the performance, which lasts over an hour with no interval. Afterwards I was able to speak with Michael and with Libby and they were so pleased that someone other than family or local people had been able to attend the day's events. Michael has been to most if not all of the performances, and he felt that the audience of that Friday afternoon was the most understanding he had seen, getting all the humour and then falling silent as the words told of a tragic moment.
I wish to record here my very grateful thanks to Michael Cameron for not only doing what he has done in a careful and sensitive way, and for giving the public the opportunity to recognise Ruby's achievements, but also for the kind way he looked after me during my short visit to Belfast.
I have used the opportunity of this visit to introduce a change of Home Page to this website. The basis of it has been seen before, when Bernie kindly gave me some transparencies he had found, taken when Ruby was having a holiday in the South of France. To this I have added the scan of the programme for the play, and a photograph I took after the Blue Plaque had been unveiled. I also have some video taken, and given time I may be able to put some of this into our library to give a better idea of how the unveiling went.
After years of pressure and effort by Bernie and Michael Cameron, the Ulster History Circle managed to secure funding from the Belfast City Council to erect a Blue Plaque in remembrance of the amazing achievements of a local girl. The plaque is placed on the wall of number 337 Donegall Road, which is where The Greater Village Regeneration Trust is located. This is a charity organisation which looks after the people living in the same area where Ruby used to live. As neither of the two homes in Moltke Street and Benburb Street where she lived is still standing, the Ulster History Circle decided to place the plaque in the Donegall Road and indeed this is quite a busy road so it should be noticed by lots of passers by.
Tim and Julie (Ruby and Bernie's son and daughter) were there and shared the honours of unveiling the plaque by each pulling on a draw cord. Tim also made a short speech to the many onlookers who had gathered there for the event. After the short ceremony, we were invited into a room where refreshments were served. We were entertained by Duke Special, who as a Belfast singer has performed several of Ruby's songs in his act. He sang and played the keyboard, and some films were shown of Ruby herself singing and talking. Also included that afternoon were various tributes given to Ruby's life.
This plaque is in addition to the one unveiled several years ago outside the Ulster Hall, and which is now located inside for better protection. I think there cannot be too many people from Belfast who have the honour of both a brown plaque and a blue plaque in the city!
I was then invited by Michael Cameron to join him at a matinée performance of the play he has scripted, which was currently running at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast. As all the evening performances had sold out soon after opening day, extra matinée performances were added to cater for the demand. I have to say that there was not a spare seat at the one which I was fortunate to attend. The play is a one act, one actress monologue with Ruby played by Libby Smyth, and her words are interspersed with extracts from Ruby's most famous records. Libby gives a powerful, dramatic performance of the events in Ruby's life, both happy and tragic ones. I was told in advance that the play starts with Ruby near the sad end of her life, sitting in the nursing home waiting for Bernie to visit her. I will admit to not being too enthusiastic at the thought of this! However, very soon Libby starts relating the events of Ruby's life, thankfully in the order in which they occurred, as Ruby remembers her life. When they are happy events, Libby plays a happy person, and when they are sad she acts accordingly. The music in a very subtle fashion echoes the story at the moment, for example the meeting with Bernie is followed by a short extract of Ruby singing Mr Wonderful. Libby does not attempt to impersonate Ruby in speaking and does not attempt to sing her songs. Of course we all realised that the play is a drama not a documentary, so the words she speaks are those which Ruby is likely to have spoken given the events that were happening at the time. But they are fashioned in a brilliant way which serves to portray all the ups and downs in our dear Ruby's life.
I was very moved by the performance, which lasts over an hour with no interval. Afterwards I was able to speak with Michael and with Libby and they were so pleased that someone other than family or local people had been able to attend the day's events. Michael has been to most if not all of the performances, and he felt that the audience of that Friday afternoon was the most understanding he had seen, getting all the humour and then falling silent as the words told of a tragic moment.
I wish to record here my very grateful thanks to Michael Cameron for not only doing what he has done in a careful and sensitive way, and for giving the public the opportunity to recognise Ruby's achievements, but also for the kind way he looked after me during my short visit to Belfast.
I have used the opportunity of this visit to introduce a change of Home Page to this website. The basis of it has been seen before, when Bernie kindly gave me some transparencies he had found, taken when Ruby was having a holiday in the South of France. To this I have added the scan of the programme for the play, and a photograph I took after the Blue Plaque had been unveiled. I also have some video taken, and given time I may be able to put some of this into our library to give a better idea of how the unveiling went.