No insult (From Barry And District News)

No insult

I think those opposing the use of the term Memo as a way of marketing the Barry Memorial Hall must remember that it was built as a theatre, not as a cenotaph.

It was built as a way of remembering and celebrating the sacrifice made by our war dead.

The majority of those who gave their lives and are recorded on the walls of the Memorial Hall were young people, many were still even teenagers.

Yet in recent years, young people would be very hard pressed to any find entertainment that would appeal to them going on in that place.

I understand that the use of the abbreviated term Memo as a marketing tool to promote the place is part of a whole package to revitalise it.

The Memorial Hall Theatre has the same seating capacity as the New Theatre in Cardiff, yet few would realise it because for decades it has been run like a rather down-at-heel community centre with third-rate entertainment and fourth-rate facilities.

We now have the chance now to turn it around.

We must not let The Memo, as it is affectionately known to all and sundry in Barry, to continue to fail.

It will not honour the memory of those young people who gave their lives if it is slowly ceases to be a real theatre and becomes an empty mausoleum.

Jon Trew Tynewydd Road, Barry