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Eugene McCabe Receives the 35th AWB Vincent American Ireland Fund Literary Award

The presentation of The 35th AWB Vincent American Ireland Fund Literary Award was presented to Eugene McCabe at gala dinner in Iveagh House Dublin on June 23rd.

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Eugene McCabe was born in Glasgow in 1930 but has spent most of his life in Ireland. He is the second son of Mrs Ellen McCabe, Sunnymeade, Clones, who comes from South Fermanagh stock and Mr. Owen McCabe who was a native of Shercock, County Cavan.
For decades he farmed with his family near Clones on the Monaghan-Fermanagh border where he still lives. He has published short fiction including 'Victims', 'Heritage' and 'Cancer', all of which have been televised, and a novel, Death and Nightingales.

Early Days
In the early '40's, his family moved back to Sunnymeade in Clones. Eugene was sent to school at Killashee, County Kildare, a school run by a French order of nuns, and then to Castleknock. He took an arts degree at Cork University. In 1955, he married Miss Margo Bowen from Cork and they have four children, one daughter and three sons (Ruth, Marcus, Patrick and Stephen).
Eugene wrote his first story at the age of 20, a story about his first term at Killashee. Encouraged by the publication of this story, he wrote his first novel. The novel was never published - In his own words "it had many faults". Eugene did not write again for ten years, deciding instead to continue working on his farm at Drumard, Clones.

Rebirth
Eugene started writing again when he was thirty - "The age of 30 was a turning point in my life.", he said. "... while I discovered I was a tenth-rate farmer, I suspected I could possibly be a third-rate writer. So I began to write again." He wrote a little play called A Matter of Conscience, followed by King of the Castle in 1964. King of the Castle, the story of an ageing and impotent farmer who wants an heir by his wife and, in desperation asks a young journeyman to perform the necessary function, won the Irish Life Award out of 169 entries. It was the unanimous choice of the adjudicators - It was produced at the Gaiety Theatre during the Dublin Theatre festival, where, for the duration of the play, "The League of Decency" protested and kept vigil outside. In the mid-seventies it was transmitted by RTE to critical acclaim. Thereafter, came a series of plays, working on the RTE television series The Riordans, radio plays and documentaries. Events in Northern Ireland would shape his next three plays.

Eugene McCabe and Northern Ireland
In the early to mid-seventies, Eugene wrote what is probably regarded as his most famous set of works, a trilogy of plays on the differing traditions and "the troubles" in Northern Ireland. The trilogy was titled Victims. He explains (Northern Standard Newspaper, April 1, 1977):

"In recent times, since the outbreak of the troubles in the North, I am very conscious that I am a writer living on the Border. There is no way a writer can turn his back on what is happening around him. All other themes seem trivial to what is now happening around us, and so, to partly ease my conscience and make a statement as a writer, I wrote a story called Cancer which was published in the Dublin Magazine, reviewed favourably and forgotten. Two years later, someone in the drama department of RTE spotted the story and suggested a play which I thought would be impossible and said so. The main reason being expense because their budget was small. For the first time ever, they said to me" Don't worry about money - we'll find the money to do it." And so it was done.

"But it seemed to me it was only taking the problem from one side - the Republican side. To balance this, I wrote Heritage, which attempted to see the agony through Protestant eyes and then I followed this with Siege which brings what we regard as the old enemies, extreme Republicans and the old English establishment, into direct dramatic confrontation. In a sense, I feel I have now made my statement on the North as a writer and eased my conscience. It will, of course change nothing, but if it has truth it must in time be of consequence. The overall theme is, of course, the futility of violence. It does also show that there is an underlying cause for violence but it profers no solution and there is no message."

The trilogy received critical acclaim, Cancer winning the writers award in Prague and Heritage winning second prize in the Prix Italia (which, at the time was the top prize in the western democracies). All three plays were produced and screened by RTE in 1973, and were favourably received - Indeed, the plays produced what the writer probably intended - fierce debate on the problems facing the differing traditions in Northern Ireland.

Recent Works
In 1992, after a silence of 16 years (he had gone back to farming), he published a novel Death and Nightingales. Since then he has published occasional short stories and is now working on four linked television pieces entitled Tales from the Poor House. They are due for production in May 1998.

Eugene McCabes main influences were the Russian writers, particularly Checkov. Among Irish writers, Joyce has been most influential. He continues to write and work on his farm in Drumard, Clones.