Walter Macken
By Ultan Macken, his son.
My father was born in Galway on 3rd May
1915, the youngest son of Walter Macken and his wife, Agnes Brady.
He went to school at St.Mary's College,
for one year and then spent the rest of his school days
at the Bish.
He joined the Taibhdhearc in 1934, while
still attending school. He worked in the Taibhdhearc
from 1934 to 1937 initially. It was while he was working
there that he met my mother, Peggy Kenny, who was then
news editor of the Connacht Tribune. She was six years
older then he was. They fell in love, but her father,
Tom Cork Kenny didn't approve of Peggy's choice, so
they had to elope and were married in Fairview Church
in Dublin on February 9th 1937. They went to London
where my father worked as an insurance agent, selling
insurance door to door, as he later wrote about in I
Am Alone. My brother, Walleog was born on April 10th
1938. The three of them returned to live in Galway just
before the outbreak of World War II in the summer of
1939. So my parents worked in the Taibhdhearc from 1939
to 1947.
He then moved to live in Dublin where
he worked for the Abbey Theatre for almost three years.
(I was born on September 10th 1943). By this stage,
he had published two novels, Quench The Moon and I Am
Aone and two plays, Mungo's Mansion and Vacant Possession.
While living in Dublin he began to write
Rain On The Wind. This was published simultaneously
in the UK and the USA in 1950. By that stage he was
in he USA doing a six month tour starring in M.J.Molloy's
play, The King Of Friday's Men. The success of Rain
On The Wind allowed him to buy our house in Oughterard.
There we moved to live in 1951 and it was there that
he wrote most of his novels. He lived in Oughterard
from 1951 to Septemnber of 1966, when they moved to
a small Gaeltacht village of Menlo, three miles from
Galway City. He died there on April 22nd 1967 at the
age of 51. He had at least four books planned in his
head.
You can learn far more about Walter Macken's
private life from my stage show. It's called My Father,
My Son and it will be having its world premiere at Taibhdhearc
na Gaillimhe on May 19th 2004. That initial run will
be for eleven days and I hope to bring this one man
show to many other venues in Ireland and abroad.
Any theatre who wishes can invite me to
bring my one-man show to visit their theatre. I'm capable
of performing it in a relatively small theatre space.
I bring my cds, videos and my guitar and I will entertain
you.
Another important piece of Walter Macken
news is that I and my brother plan to bring out a new
hardback edition of Sullivan, the autobiographical novel
first published by my father in 1957. Our new edition
of this book will be available in the shops in Ireland
by the end of May. It will retail in Ireland for approximately
20 euros or approx 30 dollars. I'm also planning to
publish a collection of his plays including one never
before published, The Voices Of Doolin, and I'm hoping
that as a publisher, with the new company, I'm forming,
Ashling Publishers Ltd (incorporating the Walter Macken
imprint) will offer Walter Macken fans the chance to
buy new hardbacks of all of my father's books.
I can be contacted either by email at
ultanmacken@vodafone.ie or by land line phone (+353-)91-765832
or on cell-phone (087)205-8290
Ultan Macken
March 2004
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