KASHMIR Road man Terry Sharpe was joined by his family and friends this week as he celebrated his 100th birthday.
Terry, whose father Albert famously starred in the hit Disney classic Darby O’Gill and the Little People, described reaching his milestone birthday as a bit overwhelming.
“For the past six weeks or so people have been asking when it was and it ended up my head was getting big,” he joked.
“The party started at seven o’clock on Friday morning and went on all day. There was eating, drinking and plenty of laughs and music which was nice.
“I never thought I would see 100. It’s one of those things that creeps up on you without asking.”
When asked his secret to a long life, Terry said: “Kindness, self-denial and starvation but you just keep on breathing and take one day at a time.”
Recalling his father Albert’s career, Terry said that he missed out on a career in showbiz as his father wouldn’t let him on stage describing it as “a very precarious living".
Instead, Terry became a signwriter for the stagecoaches and is perhaps more famously known for painting the Bushmills bottles on the old Ulsterbus.
“In my father’s lifetime he went from the variety stage which was before cinemas and the big blot in his life came in 1926 when talking pictures came out which led to the closure of the variety theatres as the cinema took over.
“He relied on seasonal work such as the pantomime at Christmas with Jimmy O’Dea and in the summertime he would have done the summer shows in the Isle of Man or Blackpool.
“Subsequently he was in a production in the Gaiety in Dublin in 1945 of the musical Showboat. Ria Mooney had seen him in it and she was casting in America. They were casting for Finian’s Rainbow on Broadway so he flew out in November and got the lead role.
“Out of that he got a five year film contract with RKO. He was quite successful and made quite a number of films. I went into the house one day and he was filling in his income tax forms and I told him to put down retired. He said no and insisted on putting down semi-retired.
“Anyhow, he got an audition for Darby O’Gill and when I saw the script I thought it was a bit of a joke but it turned out to be quite a successful film.
“My father got on very well with Walt Disney. Walt was a very nice man and he was very good to my Da. He even sent us over boxes of toys for the kids.
“My mother went over to LA with him to film and I remember reading Sean Connery’s autobiography and he said that all of the Irish crowd were over – it was like the Fatima Mansions. He wrote that Albert Sharpe knew where all of the shebeens were in LA so he saved the day.”
“When I was working for Ulsterbus, I was guest of honour at Bushmills for painting the bottle on the side of the bus. The boss brought me over to the bar and got me a ten year old single malt. I got a couple of wee halfins into me and started a sing song. A coach load of Americans arrived and thought we were the entertainment and we ended up being ordered out.”
It is clear that the entertainment industry runs through Terry’s blood with his son, Terry Jr being the lead singer with The Adventures while Terry himself sang in the Clonard choir as principle bass.
Terry plans to continue the celebrations with his family by taking a few breaks to the Portmarnock Hotel and the Grand Hotel in Malahide. He also hopes to return to his beloved Torremolinos for a winter break.
