Bill Paterson on Kenny Ireland: 'He adored being the fixer who brought people together'

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/aug/06/bill-paterson-kenny-ireland-obituary-letter

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I met Kenny Ireland 56 years ago, around the time his Great Aunt Bill (sic) took him aside and told him: "There's more to life than Paisley, Kenneth." He was to prove her right.

Today, I would be a retired quantity surveyor if Kenny hadn't forced me to follow him to drama school and into the Glasgow Citizens theatre, and I wasn't the only one. There are dozens of writers and actors who were given a hefty shove in the right direction by Kenny.

Although he would describe himself as an actor/director, I always felt that his great talent was as a producer in the old-fashioned sense of that word. He adored being the fixer who brought people together. Thanks to him even Billy Connolly found his first big audience at the 1972 Edinburgh festival.

In 1974 he produced and directed the spectacular The Fantastical Feats of Finn McCool in the old Haymarket Ice Rink, Edinburgh. Cast of dozens, design by John Byrne, live music by the legendary Planxty. The critics weren't kind but on the last night Kenny opened the vast space to the biggest ceilidh Edinburgh had ever seen and he walked away a happy man.

He was good at being happy and loved and deserved his later fame in Benidorm, where he managed to make "swinging" look twinkly and not sleazy.

He even left his mark on the present format of the National Theatre of Scotland. He campaigned for a gathering of ideas and projects across the land rather than a big monolithic building. It was right up his street and although, in the end, he didn't get the job of running the NTS he once said: "If I'd got the job I'd have done it differently but probably not so well."

He was a big man in every sense.