Stories from Old Newspapers


Dungarvan Observer 4 February 1961

‘Jack Aranson and Mary Rose McMaster have returned to Ireland after five years in America.  During that time, they appeared in several plays in New York, on T.V. and toured the States extensively mainly in a Shakespeare programme. Orson Welles with whom Jack Aranson appeared in ‘King Lear’ on Broadway, has personally given him the sole rights of his adaption of Moby Dick.We learn this Company will play in Dungarvan on the 12th and 14th of February and have stood down on Monday night 13th so that the Dungarvan Harriers patrons could have the amenities of the Friary Hall.  What a sporting and noble gesture’.

Mary Rose McMaster (1926-2018) was the daughter of actor Anew McMaster.  She married American actor Jack Aranson and they founded a production company.  Her biography of her father was published in 2018 – A Life Remembered: A Memoir of Anew McMaster.  Anew McMaster appeared in many dramatic productions in Dungarvan.  Mary Rose died in her 90s in America.