Funeral of Eugene McCabe to take place
His Funeral mass will take place in Sacred Heart Chapel, Clones, today (Saturday, August 29). Mr His funeral cortège will leave after from the chapel on foot via Fermanagh Street and The Diamond.
The funeral of playwright, storyteller and dramatist Eugene McCabe will take place later today.
One of Ireland’s leading contemporary writers, age 90 years, Mr McCabe died peacefully at Cavan General Hospital, Thursday last, August 27.
Born in Glasgow July 7, 1930, to Irish parents with roots in Clones parish, Shercock and Corranny, they returned to Ireland at the outbreak of the Second World War (1939) to where Mr McCabe's grandfather had bought a farm at Drumard, near Lackey Bridge in Clones, Co Monaghan.
He attended University College Cork, and having cut his teeth first writing for theatre.
He then began scripting for television when RTÉ began in 1960.
In 1964, Mr McCabe's play King of the Castle was the success of that year's Dublin Theatre Festival.
In the early seventies he then wrote a trilogy of television plays on the differing traditions in Northern Ireland.
Broadcast by RTÉ Television in 1973 and titled 'Victims', they consisted of plays named 'Cancer', 'Heritage' and 'Siege'- each written as a statement in response to the Troubles. Throughout his life Mr McCabe was an ardent critic of violent extremism and sectarianism.
In 1992 he published his novel 'Death and Nightingales'. The novel was described by fellow Irish writer Colm Tóibín as “one of the great Irish masterpieces of the century” and a “classic of our times” by Kirkus Reviews.
Throughout his career Mr McCabe received many awards for his work.
They included the Irish Life Theatre Award in 1964 for 'King of the Castle'; the Legum Doctorate from University of Prince Edward Island, Canada 1990; and the Butler Literary Award for Prose from Irish American Cultural Institute in 2002.
From the American/Irish Ireland Funds, he also received the 2006 AWB Vincent Literary Award. Mr McCabe was also a member of Aosdána, an association of artists whose work is deemed to have made an outstanding contribution to the creative arts.
Mr McCabe is survived by his wife Margot, daughter Ruth, sons Marcus, Patrick and Stephen, sister Margaret, son-in-law Colmán, daughter-in-law Kate, Lisa and Andrea, grandchildren Hannah, Leo, Thomas, Tireoin, Roisin, Caspar, Jordan, Caitlin, Faelin, Conal, Eabha, Odhran and Dara-Grace, great-grandson Zavier, extended family and many friends and neighbours.
His Funeral mass will take place in Sacred Heart Chapel, Clones, today (Saturday, August 29), at 1pm, followed by cremation at Lakelands Crematorium, Cavan.
Mr McCabe’s funeral cortège will leave from the chapel on foot via Fermanagh Street and The Diamond.
Due to the continued restrictions on public gatherings, the Funeral Mass and cremation will be celebrated in the presence of his family and close friends only.
The funeral mass can be viewed on the following link- https://www.churchservices.tv/sacredheartclones.