BELFAST ACTRESS HELD UP AT ELLIS ISLAND: NOW PERMITTED TO ENTER U.S.

Northern Whig, Thursday 22nd September 1932

New York, Wednesday

Miss Una O’Connor, the well-known actress, a native of Belfast, who arrived here on Monday night to play in the film version of “Cavalcade” at Hollywood, has to-day been allowed to enter the United States, the immigration authorities being now satisfied that the heart ailment from which they allege she is suffering will not cause her to become a public charge.

She was quite unaware of any heart trouble, and as far as she knew was perfectly well.

Notwithstanding this fact the Ellis Island authorities insisted on her remaining aboard the liner for the night.

Miss O’Connor was born in Belfast, and made her first appearance at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in 1911, in Bernard Shaw’s “Showing Up on Blanco Posnet.” She first appeared in a London Theatre – the Court – in 1913 in “The Magic Glass.” She quickly made a name for herself, and appeared in leading roles in many successful plays in the West End.

In Mr. Cochran’s production of Noel Coward’s “Cavalcade” she played throughout in the part of Ellen, one of the principal roles, which she acted brilliantly. At the termination of the run the Fox Film Company secured her services to play the same part in the film version which is to be made at Hollywood.

Una was placed 19th on The Irish Times' list of 50 greatest Irish film actors of all time in 2020.

JEWISH WEDDING IN BELFAST

Belfast News-Letter, Wednesday 31st December 1924

A wedding solemnised according to the Jewish custom took place in the Carlton Restaurant, Belfast, at half-past seven last night, the contracting parties being Mr. Henry Wolf, London, late of the London Rifle Brigade, and Miss Emma Ross, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Ross, Ermington, Marlborough Park, Belfast.

About three hundred guests attended the marriage ceremony, at which the officiating clergyman was the Rev. P. Fassenfeld, London, uncle of the bride, who was assisted by the Rev. S. D. Barnett, Belfast.

The bride, who was given away by her father, looked very pretty in a dress of silver tissue, in ermine tails, beaded with silver. She also wore a white tulle veil, which was held in place by a silver coronet, and carried a bouquet of orchids, carnations, and lily of the valley.

The bridesmaids were the Misses Flora and Mai Ross, sisters of the bride; whilst Mrs. C. Benjamin, London was the matron of honour. Miss Flora Ross wore a beautiful gown of fuchsia georgette, beaded with Rhinestone; whilst Miss Mai Ross’s dress was of oxidised silver and mauve. Both wore coronets of silver. Mrs. Benjamin wore a gown of crystal beaded cyclamen georgette, and like the bridesmaids, she carried a bouquet of pink carnations. Mr. E. Isaacs acted as best man.

During the ceremony the bride and bridegroom stood under a canopy of crimson velvet, adorned with gold beading and white chrysanthemums. Wagner’s “Bridal March” and the “Wedding March”, by Mendelssohn, were played on the organ by Mr. Louis Werner.

At the wedding dinner, which was prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Mosaic Code, the bride’s father presided and the toasts of “The King” and “The Governor of Northern Ireland” were heartily honoured. The health of the bride and bridegroom was proposed by Mr. B. J. Fox, B.L., and acknowledged by Mr. Wolf. The other toasts were “The Parents,” given by Mr. M. Goldring, and responded to by Mr. Ross; and “The Guests,” proposed by Mr. M. E. Miller, and responded to by Mr. James Campbell.

The honeymoon is to be spent on the Continent, and the bride’s travelling dress is a French creation of beige duvetyn, with which she will wear a black satin hat trimmed with ospreys and a moleskin wrap.

Special Collections at Queen’s has been developing a varied collection of books and archival material relating to Jewish heritage in Ireland. Click here to read more about it.

BARELEGGED TYPISTS: SURPRISING SYDNEY “NEWS” OF BELFAST

Belfast Telegraph, Thursday 18th July 1929

BREAK INTO VERSE ABOUT IT

SAYS THEY WORK IN PARTY FROCKS

(By “A Girl in the Crowd.”)

You’ll be surprised, I suppose, to learn that Belfast typists go to work in bare legs and flimsy party frocks.

A correspondent has just forwarded a cutting from a Sydney (New South Wales) newspaper, in which the above interesting information is given as a news item, together with these lines:-

“Alas! We might have guessed how things would be when Ireland broke from English rule at last. Dour Ulster Presbyterians agree. The Belfast girl becomes a belle that’s fast! Dublin and Cork look at them with dismay, and Limerick and Wexford make a fuss – they shake their heads in sorrow and they say – “These Belfast girls are too bl-fast for us.”

The “Daily Guardian,” Sydney, which printed that would be sadly disappointed, I’m afraid, were they to send a photographer over to snap this bare-legged, party-frocked army!

Extraordinary things are even yet believed in certain countries concerning Ireland. In a vague sort of way people still imagine we all have red hair, and that we walk round in our bare feet wagging shillelaghs, and that kind of thing. But the accusation of our being fast is a novel one. Even a little French schoolgirl, writing an essay on Ireland, came to the conclusion that “Irish people are not wicked, but foolish. They keep pigs, and have red cheeks.” (I don’t know whether it’s the pig-keeping part of it she considers foolish, but, at any rate, she dismisses us of the charge of being wicked.)

THE OBSERVED OF ALL OBSERVERS

To get back to the bare-legged typists who go to work in flimsy party frocks, it occurs to me that the “Sydney Guardian” hasn’t much idea of the weather to which we are subject to in Northern Ireland. Except on occasional days the above kind of dress would result in an epidemic of pneumonia among typists of Belfast. There’s another aspect of it, however. I mentioned the other day that a little American girl visitor found herself the cynosure of all eyes in Belfast because she wore no stockings. It reminds me what was told of another unfortunate girl who dared to play bare-legged tennis, and travelled via tram to her club with – er – nude ankles, in June.

En route she said she couldn’t have received more horrified looks had she been walking about with measles or smallpox. One old boy in particular blushed so profusely and looked so annoyed that she was afraid he’d get apoplexy. Mind you, that same old boy, I’m convinced, would sit on the beach with a straw hat on the back of his head, and read the “Presbyterian Messenger,” and not turn a hair at a bevy of youth and beauty sun-bathing around him. Such a queer old world it is that while you won’t offend anyone in a hundred at Ballyholme Bay if you walk around there in a bathing costume, try the same crowd and the same costume at Castle Junction, and you’ll probably be arrested. In a way, there’s not much sense in it, but there it is, and because of it we are not more prudish than any other little corner of the world.

Will the “Daily Guardian” Sydney, New South Wales, kindly take note, however, that most Belfast typists are not earning much magnanimous salaries as to afford to sport their party frocks at work, and that one wretched girl who dared bare her legs got so many cold stares that she thought it would be kind of warmer to get back to hosiery. And that’s that!