Guardian's film reviewer pays tribute to Nenagh cinema founder

I first met Edward Gleeson when, having just moved to Nenagh, I was looking for a job. He asked to meet me inside the Ormond Cineplex, which was in the midst of a wholesale refurbishment. After some initial formalities, we soon got talking about cinema. When I mentioned I was a big fan of 'Sunset Boulevard' (it was one of his favourites too) the interview quickly drifted into an ebullient discourse on the joys of movies.
I ended up working for Edward for over a decade and in that time I was privileged to have access to his intricate memories of a lifetime spent working in the industry. He explained how the technology advanced over the years, moving from the carbon arc lamps (that had to have rods fed into them) to the xenon lamps that became the norm from the 1970s on. As interesting as this was, it didn't compare to his personal accounts of the big hits and the big misses over the years. 'Star Wars', for example, wasn't initially met with much enthusiasm, while 'Titanic' could have ran for 10 screenings a day had it been possible. In many ways, listening to Edward was like being in the presence of a living history of the cinema business.
What shone out above all else was his love for movies and for movie stars. Tyrone Power, William Holden and Clint Eastwood were some of his heroes. He spoke with untrammelled ardour about films like 'All About Eve' and 'Some Like it Hot' but there was equal reverence for the work of Quentin Tarantino and more contemporary pictures like 'La La Land' and 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.
Over the years we had a few disagreements over the merits of this or that film, but in general we loved a lot of the same stuff (except for sci-fi; that's one genre he never really warmed to). His daughter Helen, the General Manager of the Ormond Cineplex, inherited her father's love of film and together they were proud to back new talent. Both of local filmmaker Tom Ryan's features were proudly run at the Ormond. More recently, the documentary 'This is Nicholas' by Nicholas Ryan-Purcell was championed by the Gleeson family with Helen helping Nicholas to bring his wonderful story to cinemas across the land and beyond.
I was such a regular fixture in the cinema that many of our regulars assumed that I was related to Edward in some way. While I am not, I can sincerely say that he and Helen (and the rest of the Gleeson clan) always made me feel like family. It is then with sadness that I experience the end of this particular era. I will miss the chats with Edward and Helen and I will miss hearing which film lit a fire in him and which left him cold. However, the sadness is tinged with satisfaction that there will continue to be a cinema in Nenagh and that people will continue to enjoy the same magic that has captivated Edward since he was a young boy.