Literature
Eugene McCabe
Considered to be a master storyteller and dramatist, Eugene McCabe was born in Glasgow in July 1930 to Irish parents. His family returned to Clones in Monaghan in the early forties and Eugene attended University College, Cork.
In the early seventies, he wrote what is probably regarded as his most famous set of works, a trilogy of television plays on the differing traditions in Northern Ireland. The trilogy, broadcast by RTÉ Television in 1973 was titled Victims and consisted of Cancer; Heritage and Siege. Cancer won the Writers’ Award in Prague and second prize in the Prix Italia.
His 1992 novel Death and Nightingales set in1883, became something of a contemporary classic. He received many awards for his work including the Irish Life Theatre Award in 1964 for King of the Castle which was first produced in1964 by the Dublin Theatre Festival; the Legum Doctorate from University of Prince Edward Island, Canada in 1990 and the Butler Literary Award for Prose from Irish American Cultural Institute in 2002. From the American/Irish Ireland Funds, he received the 2006 AWB Vincent Literary Award.
His short fiction included the novella and stories Victims: A Tale from Fermanagh (London, Gollancz/Cork, Mercier, 1976); Heritage and Other Stories (Gollancz, 1978); Christ in the Fields, A Fermanagh Trilogy (London, Minerva, 1993); Tales from the Poor House (Oldcastle, The Gallery Press, 1999); and Heaven Lies about Us (London, Cape, 2005)
Photographer: Bobby Hanvey.