Alto Studios — Robert Emmet House
by Paul McDermott
This is a series of articles about the production of my latest radio documentary “No Journeys End — the story of Michael O’Shea”.
Part 1 — Michael O’Shea — the making of… (is here)
Part 3 — Danny McCarthy and the Vox Cabaret (is here)
Part 4 — The Hammered Dulcimer in Ireland (is here)
Update (August 2019) — the finished documentary is below:
Introduction
This is a series of articles about a radio documentary I’m currently producing. Its subject is the Irish musician Michael O’Shea and provided everything goes according to plan it will be broadcast on RTÉ Lyric FM.
Part Two — Alto Studios — Robert Emmet House
The links between: Michael O’Shea, Stano & Microdisney — Vox magazine — Alto Studios — Robert Emmet — the Marist Fathers at Milltown — and “Colm agus Nuala”
This article concerns a tangent to the main narrative of my forthcoming Michael O’Shea radio documentary. Whenever I undertake a radio production I inevitably end up obsessing over a tangent or two. For instance whilst producing Behind These Doors — an aural history of 26 notable Dubliners — I became obsessed with the story of Rex Ingram. In my defence I had stumbled across a plaque in Grosvenor Square: “Rex Ingram (Hitchcock) — Film Maker — Born in this house 15 Jan, 1893 — Died Hollywood 1950”. In fairness I think there’s enough on that plaque to spark anyone’s interest.
My enthusiasm for Ingram’s story led me to staging a screening of his silent epic war film The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) in Rathmines Public Library. Josh Johnston provided a thrilling musical accompaniment to the film. So, I’m liable to going off on tangents.
As mentioned in Part 1 of this series Michael O’Shea had contributed to Content To Write In I Dine Weathercraft the debut album by Stano. Since this album was released in 1983, Stano has recorded 12 further albums, the most recent of which is In Between Silence, a series of sound pieces which juxtaposes Stano’s music with spoken word storytelling from some of Ireland’s finest writers, including Anne Enright, Roddy Doyle and others.
Content To Write In I Dine Weathercraft was recorded in Alto Studios. Stano recalled that, “the studio was in Robert Emmet’s house in Milltown, Terry Cromer had a studio there.” I can remember looking up from my handheld recorder and asking Stano, “do you mean the Robert Emmet?” Stano laughed, “Yeah, it was basically a big mansion and the basement was a basketball court and there was a control room up a stairs. That’s where I also did my first album.”
Emmet House
The house was originally named Casino House and was the residence of the Emmet family from 1770 until 1803. Robert Emmet’s part in the 1798 rebellion was small because little happened in Dublin. Robert Southey, the poet, said that during the rebellion, “Emmet escaped by excavating a hiding-place under the study in his father’s house. There he lived for six weeks, having food, books and a light” (O’Broin, 1958).
In 1802 Robert’s father Dr Robert Emmet died and Casino House was said to have been closed up and remained for a time apparently deserted. But it was still used by Robert as a place of refuge and after the failure of the rebellion of 1803, when a price was put on his head, he is said to have stolen back on many occasions where he constructed an elaborate system of tunnels and secret passages throughout the house and gardens.
Emmet was captured on 25 August 1803, he was tried for treason and on 19 September was found guilty of high treason. He was sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered. Emmet was executed the following day in Thomas Street in front of St. Catherine’s Church. Speculation continues regarding the whereabouts of Emmet’s remains.
After 1803 Casino House passed to Thomas Addis Emmet, Robert’s brother. Thomas did not wish to remain in Ireland after the rebellion and the house went through different owners before passing into the hands of the Meldons, a Westmeath family, in the 1840s. By the 1880s Casino House had passed into the possession of Sir Henry Harty, south county coroner. In 1915 John C. Meyers, a Dublin merchant bought the house and in 1920 sold it to the Marist Fathers.
Alto Studios
In the late 1970s Alto Studios, a film and recording studio, was installed in Emmet House. Terry Cromer who ran the recording studio at Alto remembers that, “Emmet House was owned by the Marist Fathers. The studio was actually in a performance hall. Alto was an acronym for An Lárionad Teicneolaíochta Oideachas Teoranta (The Centre for Educational Technology Ltd.)”
“Primary schools used to teach Irish using filmstrips, says Terry. “You’d put the filmstrip on a projector and it would advance one frame at a time. Alto was basically set up to produce those films: [laughing] ‘Colm agus Nuala’, everyone who went to school at that time would remember ‘Colm agus Nuala’. There was a video studio there and I ran the recording studio from early 1981 until mid 1982.”
Those of us of a certain age will straight away recall ‘Colm agus Nuala’. Indeed I suddenly remembered having salvaged a box of little film canisters from a skip over 25 years ago (don’t ask). I located them at home and very quickly saw that each canister has the Alto name and logo and the last slide of each film bears the words “CRÍOCH, LÁRIONAD TEILIFÍSE OIDEACHAIS”.
Terry gasps in disbelief when I tell that I have a stash of the film canisters: “The registered name was Alto using Teicneolaíochta. My wife Maureen designed this end title graphic along with producing the characters and storystrip. She started working there in 1977 when Teilifíse was in use. It possibly changed on later ones after the Alto name was registered as a limited company.”
In the early 80s lots of Dublin bands were using Alto to record demos. “A lot of this started with Dave Clifford of Vox Magazine,” recalls Terry. “I can’t remember who introduced me to Dave Clifford but the two of us got on like a house on fire. He was really into the music and he had these bands that had no where to record and I had the studio so we sort of hooked up and he would send someone over to me to get them recorded and that’s how Vox Enterprises, his record label, started. There was a kind of synergy there between the two of us. Dave had a finger on the button of what was happening in Ireland at the time. At one stage we were actually the busiest studio in Dublin — we had a different band in every day for 20 days in a row.
Some of those bands were from the country’s burgeoning post-punk scene including: Deaf Actor (featuring Paul Byrne and Jack Dublin who would later find fame with In Tua Nua); Ghostdance (featuring Stan Erraught and Bernard Walsh who would later go on to be in Stars of Heaven); The End (featuring a young Tom Dunne of course latterly the lead singer in Something Happens) and Microdisney. Indeed Microdisney recorded at Alto as a five-piece and later on as a two-piece before leaving Ireland for London in mid 1983. Microdisney’s Cathal Coughlan was surprised to learn of Alto’s link to the rebellion of 1803, “I had no idea it was Robert Emmet’s old house, the revisionist approach that we all had to Nationalism at that point probably would have precluded any sense of identification.”
Terry Cromer eventually left Alto in mid-82, “[Laughing] I’d a big row with the owner and I was fired out of the place — but that’s how these things happen. The majority of recording was done out of hours, largely because most people had work.”
Since 1986 Emmet House has been the headquarters of the Joint Managerial Body, Secretariat of Secondary Schools. Earlier this Summer the JMB kindly facilitated a visit for myself and Stano. To our surprise when we arrived at the House we saw that the original Alto name and logo are still in situ on the door’s frosted glass. We were taken on a tour of the house and shown the basement from where Robert Emmet accessed a getaway tunnel. The House has been completely renovated since Stano had last been there with Michael O’Shea in the early 80s so it took him a while to find his bearings but eventually we figured out where the old studio rooms were. As we sat in front of where a glass partition connected the control room with the live room the memories came flooding back for Stano; he recalled meeting Michael O’Shea busking on Grafton Street and asking him to play on the album that he was working on at Alto.
Terry and myself had a good chat about Michael O’Shea, old Dublin studios, Microdisney’s recent NCH gig and the old ‘Colm agus Nuala’ filmstrips. He laughs when he recalls that, “The Department of Education approved the characters and Maureen drew them. She’s responsible for the female doctor in the series. The Dept insisted only men were doctors but after much robust discussion she got her way.”
To be continued…
Part 1 — Michael O’Shea — the making of… (is here)
Part 3 — Danny McCarthy and the Vox Cabaret (is here)
Part 4 — The Hammered Dulcimer in Ireland (is here)
© Paul McDermott 2018, All Rights Reserved
O’Broin, Leon (1958) The Unfortunate Mr Robert Emmet. London: Burns Oates & Washbourne.
For further information:
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Further Listening
© Paul McDermott 2019, All Rights Reserved
