Anna Manahan's septuagenarian Mag Folan, hissing with venom at her 40-year old daughter. Marie Mullen as Maureen, spitting back as she serves up the Complan and the Kimberley biscuits. "They speak at one another with a directness that is at once literal and unreal, each exchange laced with emotional violence, "wrote Irish Times theatre critic David Nowlan, reviewing Martin McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane in February 1996, writes Lorna Siggins

The audience of playwrights, politicians and people of influence was exuberant, decamping later to the Glenlo Abbey Hotel in the Connemara Bus. Not only was it Druid Theatre company's 21st anniversary, but it was also the opening night of Galway's new Town Hall.

McDonagh's work and Garry Hynes's production of same was hailed then as a defining moment, and almost a decade later the Town Hall Theatre hosted yet another piece of dramatic history, when it staged the DruidSynge cycle as part of this year's Galway Arts Festival. Small wonder, then, that Hynes, Druid's artistic director, should be booked as one of 10 individual events chosen to mark the 10th anniversary of the artistic space.

A rare public appearance by author John McGahern, who will read from his new book, Memoir, a presentation with music of the Atlantean theory by film-maker and writer Bob Quinn, and an exploration of the "Barbie" syndrome and feminine imagery by Barcelona's Sol Pico Dance Company are among the selection of events picked by theatre manager Michael Diskin.

The celebrations open with Galician piper Carlos Nunez and his band on September 12th. Frank McGuinness's compelling play, Someone Who'll Watch Over Me, directed by Andrew Flynn and starring actors Rod Goodall, Diarmuid de Faoite and Paul Roe, will be staged before it embarks on a national tour, while there is Italian opera with the Opera Theatre Company - and the all-female Okinawa Song and Dance Theatre Company travels from Japan.

Diskin worked for a time in the Japanese embassy in Dublin - hence the connection there - but the programme is intended to reflect both his personal favourites and the range and diversity of work with which the theatre has been associated over the decade.

"It's to show what we have done and what we can do," Diskin explains. "You take Bob Quinn, for example, who has developed his Atlantean theory about our various maritime roots on film and in print. Why not present this live and take that debate one step further?"

The programme's conclusion, a special screening of John Huston's classic, The Quiet Man, in association with NUI Galway's Huston School of Film and Digital Media, did pose a particular challenge. "It is out on video of course, but we had to contact the UCLA film archive in California to borrow one of the last 35mm prints," Diskin says. "They set special conditions, including use of two projectors to ensure that there is no interruption."

Film is an integral part of the Town Hall Theatre's repertoire, which spans 52 weeks of the year, and there are many in Galway who frequented the building during its former life as a cinema. Designed by Sir Richard Morrison and erected in the 1820s, the premises first served as a courthouse and then as the local authority's actual town hall. It was converted to a cinema in the 1950s, but competition in the guise of a new "omniplex" proved too much for the former leaseholder. When a campaign began to establish a municipal theatre, former city manager Joe Gavin recognised its potential.

However, the vital capital funding for its refurbishment came from Labour's former arts minister, current party president and Galway West TD, Michael D Higgins, during his term in office. He drew down money from the EU regional development fund and combined it with Exchequer expenditure as part of his vision for a network of regional centres of excellence.

The subsequent financial envelope was negotiated at a time when Higgins was establishing TG4, the Irish language television station, negotiating the acquisition of Turlough House in Castlebar, Co Mayo, and Collins Barracks in Dublin for the National Museum, and transferring the Chester Beatty library to Dublin Castle. Backing the initiative locally was the Galway municipal theatre trust, which had been established with the support of leading artistic figures such as Lelia Doolan, Padraic Breathnach and Trish Forde.

Eithne Verling was hired as project manager by the trust, which included local politicians among its representation. Her brief was to fundraise for the theatre and for an artistic space, which has become the Black Box. There was a long-term plan for other initiatives, including a museum and municipal gallery.

Supporters bought seats for the theatre, and there was "enormous goodwill", Verling remembers. "Galway really rallied," she says, and business people such as Eamonn Bradshaw of Bank of Ireland provided vital corporate support and advice.

One of the many fundraising events was a performance of Mícheál Ó Súilleabheáin's Lumen, Missa Gadelica and Between Worlds, performed by the Irish Chamber Orchestra, with the composer on piano, singers Brian Kennedy and Nóirín Ní Riain, and saxophonist Kenneth Edge. It sold out every pew in the Galway Cathedral.

"Housing the arts in Galway" was the name of Verling's campaign, and Joe Gavin pledged a site beside the Omniplex cinema on the Dyke Road for the Black Box if the city secured the Eurovision contest. Work on refurbishing the theatre began in September 1994, and the Patrician Musical Society staged the first show - Chess, the Musical, with lyrics by Tim Rice.

Druid's Beauty Queen of Leenane was booked for the gala opening night.

By then Diskin, who had worked formerly with the Galway Arts Centre and the Galway Arts Festival, had been hired as a city council employee, directly answerable to local authority. "Yes, it was unusual here to have direct control by a local authority, but the norm in other European states. I have found it to be a very productive experience, as there is a level of support that can prove to be invaluable.

"Working with the arts festival and with people like Ollie Jennings, the festival founder, taught me that arts should not have to be peripheral, and I suppose our artistic policy has always involved being at the centre of the community. We have a social role, which is why the programme ranges from amateur to professional productions, with a very strong input by Galway groups."

Funding derives from the city council and the Arts Council, but this total subsidy of about €200,000 annually represents about 10 per cent of the total turnover. "So we are commercially focused, but the subsidy does allow us to break out of the commercial straitjacket and take artistic risks."

Ten years on, Michael D Higgins hasn't forgotten the slating he received for his initiative, even as the Grianán in Letterkenny, the Town Hall in Galway, the Crawford Gallery and Kino cinema in Cork, and more, are an integral part of the cultural landscape.

"I remember distinctly being asked about these white elephants," Higgins says wryly. "Yet I think the Town Hall is now the second most visited theatre on the island, after Belfast. I never had any doubts about the fact that they would be queuing up at the door."

Details of the Town Hall Theatre's 10th anniversary programme, which opens with the Carlos Nunez Band on Sept 12, are available from the box office at 091-569777