Wanderly Wagon
Wanderly Wagon was in Wolfe Tone Square, off Jervis Street, Dublin for the weekend of 24–25 April as part of the Dublin Puppet Festival.
The Dublin Puppet Festival took place from 19 to 25 April 2010. Featuring a weekend of free, open-air, performances on the streets of Temple Bar and in Wolfe Tone Square, the festival also hosted ‘International Punch Day’, a celebration of Punch and Judy shows from all over Europe.
This year’s festival was dedicated to the memory of its founder, legendary puppeteer and entertainer Eugene Lambert, who passed away in February of this year.
Wanderly Wagon was an Irish children's television series which aired on RTÉ from Saturday 30 September 1967 until 1982. Wanderly Wagon followed human and puppet characters as they travelled around Ireland visiting interesting locations, rescuing Princesses and generally doing good.
The original premise of the show expanded to follow the characters to magical lands of Irish mythology, and even into outer space.
Don Lennox and Jim O'Hare came up with the idea of Wanderly Wagon when Lennox was giving O'Hare a lift home from work. O'Hare was recalling a recent family holiday spent on a horse drawn caravan in County Cork. Lennox became the first producer of Wanderly Wagon and O'Hare designed the wagon, the flying Sweet shop and the show's costumes.
Various episodes were written by Neil Jordan, Carolyn Swift, Pat Ingoldsby, Martin Duffy and Frank Kelly, who also played several characters on the show.
The Wagon itself could fly. Using chroma key special effects, the Wagon was shown hovering in midair, landing in various magical lands, and even traveling underwater.
The series developed a tradition of transmitting a Christmas Day show from a Dublin childrens' hospital every year.