McDonogh Capital Investments have come on board as sponsors for Druid Theatre’s 50th anniversary celebrations this year.

Events from the theatre company to mark the 50th milestone include a sold-out double bill of JM Synge’s Riders to the Sea and William Shakespeare’s Macbeth in Galway this July for the Galway International Arts Festival.  Macbeth will transfer to Dublin later this year, while the company’s 2024 Festival production of Samule Beckett’s Endgame will travel to New York.

McDonogh Capital Investments is an investment and property company with a portfolio in Ireland, mainland Europe and further afield. It’s a subsidiary of the well-known Thomas McDonogh & Sons Limited, which was established in Galway more 150 years ago.

The sponsorship sum isn’t  revealed, but this isn’t the first time McDonoghs have supported Druid. The company’s theatre space is in a former McDonogh warehouse – Druid were given the keys of the building in 1979 for a peppercorn rent before McDonoghs later donated the property in full. This security allowed Druid to survive and thrive.

Thanking the McDonagh group, Druid’s Artistic Director Garry Hynes described as “very special” the investment group’s involvement in the theatre group’s 50th anniversary.

“I don’t believe we would have reached this milestone without their incredible investment in us back when we were starting out in the 1970s,” she said.

CEO of McDonogh Capital Investments, Tom McDonogh, said the company was “extremely proud of our roots in the West of Ireland”.

This partnership allows for a celebration of “the past and the present, and the very best of our two iconic brands: local, regional, national – and international”.

More information on productions and other aspects of Druid’s 50th anniversary programme at www.druid.ie.

Pictured: The Druid cast on board a fishing trawler  in 1982, for their first tour to the Aran Islands with J M Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World. McDonoghs have supported the theatre company since Druid was founded. PHOTO JOE O’SHAUGHNESSY.