Press release
Minister Catherine Martin T.D. expresses her deep regret on the passing of Eugene McCabe
From Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
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From Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Published on
Last updated on
Minister for Media, Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sport and the Gaeltacht, Catherine Martin T.D., has expressed her deep regret on the passing of master storyteller and dramatist, Eugene McCabe. Born in Scotland of emigrant parents who returned to Ireland in the early 40s, McCabe grew up in Clones, Co. Monaghan.
Minister Martin said: “Eugene McCabe was a master storyteller and dramatist who spent most of his life in my own home county of Monaghan. While he produced a great volume of literary works, he will probably be best remembered for his trilogy of plays which he wrote in the early seventies based on the differing traditions in Northern Ireland. These plays received critical acclaim and were produced and screened by RTE in 1973.”
Minister Martin recalled that his 1992 novel Death and Nightingales, set in 1883, is regarded by many as a contemporary classic. This novel was adapted for television and was broadcast by RTÉ and the BBC in November 2018.
Minister Martin said that “Eugene McCabe received many awards during his lifetime for his work including the Irish Life Theatre Award in 1964 for ‘King of the Castle’, a Doctorate from University of Prince Edward Island, Canada in 1990, the Butler Literary Award for Prose from the Irish American Cultural Institute in 2002 and the 2006 AWB Vincent Literary Award from the American/Irish Ireland Funds.”
Minister Martin concluded that “It is a day of great sadness for Ireland to lose such a talented writer after other great Irish artists that we have lost in recent times. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.”