Ireland

23rd April 1967

Cancelled appearance

Mount Brandon Hotel – Tralee, County Kerry

It may come as a surprise to see Ireland listed as a destination for Jayne on this tour. Obviously Ireland is not part of the UK and as this website is listed as Jayne’s England tour there may be some confusion. However, there is a straightforward explanation; Jayne was booked for a performance at the Mount Brandon Hotel in Tralee, County Kerry, but it was cancelled. The reasons for the cancellation are not quite as straightforward.

Jayne was booked to appear at the Mount Brandon Hotel on Sunday April 23^rd. However the local clergy were not happy about the so-called “goddess of lust” performing cabaret in their town. The Bishop of Kerry, the Most Rev. Dr Dennis Moynihan, had advised that no Catholics should attend. The bishop’s message was read in local churches, and the Dean of Kerry, Monsignor John Lane, added his own words:

“She boasts that her New York critics say she sells sex better than any other actress in the world. I appeal to every man and woman, boy and girl, to dissociate themselves form this attempt to besmirch the name of our town for the sake of filthy lucre”.

The Bishop of Kerry, Most Rev. Dr Dennis Moynihan, who led the protests over Jayne Mansfield's concert — The Bishop of Kerry, Most Rev. Dr Dennis Moynihan, who led the protests over Jayne’s concert

Jayne had arrived in County Kerry but following this uproar she was forced to cancel and return to England. Curiously to add to the confusion one newspaper reported that neither Jayne’s team nor the hotel cited the church protests as the reason for the cancellation; instead the hotel had cancelled because the backing band from Dublin had failed to turn up due to their van breaking down. This story is repeated in a more recent newspaper article.

Whatever the real reason, the show was off. Luckily this fiasco left us with some excellent footage of a press conference at the Brandon Hotel and news report from the time, which gives us an insight into Jayne’s thoughts.

Interestingly Jayne was still paid her £1,000 fee for what would have been a 35 minute appearance, so she won’t have been wholly disheartened. Jayne’s replacement was a band called Jack and the Jackpots.