1915-1967 [var. 1916]; b. 3 May, b. 18 St Joseph’s Ave., Galway; f. died at Somme in 1916; family moved to St. Jude’s on Henry St., 1927; wrote first story aged 12; joined Taibhdhearc [Gaelic Theatre], Galway, at 17, acted, directed and wrote Irish plays; eloped with Peggy Kenny, eldest dg. of Tom Cork Kenny, fndr. of Connacht Tribune, 1937; lived two years in London before returning to Galway, summer 1939, settling nr. Whitestrand where he remained until be moved to in Dublin, 1948; acted at the Abbey during in 1940s and 50s, with a home at 31 Ardpartick Rd., Cabra; Mungo’s Mansion (Abbey, 1946), prod. by Frank Dermody, had a long run with F. J. McCormick as Mungo King; Dublin and successful productions in London and Belfast established his reputation as a skilful regional dramatist; played lead role in Broadway production of M. J. Molloy’s The King of Friday’s Men (1948); and his own Home is the Hero (1954), as the unsympathetic father-as-outcast; later filmed near O’Connell’s schools, 1958; purchased Gort na Ganiv (built in 1900), Glann Road, nr. Oughterard, and wrote most of his novels there; wrote Twilight of A Warrior (1955), in which Dacey Adam is a hero of the Troubles turned successful business man; issued a novel, I Am Alone (1949), dealing with an Irishman in London, and banned by the Irish Censorship Board; also issued Rain on the Wind (1950) a romance set in the Claddagh, Co. Galway; his best-remembered series of historical novels include Seek the Fair Land (1959), dealing with the Cromwellian migrations, The Silent People (1962) on the Irish Famine, and The Scorching Wind (1964), concerning the Troubles, 1916-1922; his story-collections incl. The Green Hills (1956) and God Made Sunday (1961); made a film of Behan’s The Quare Fellow; served as artistic director of the Abbey, from 1966, in the wake of an actor's strike against the management of Ernest Blythe; moved to Menlo, nr. Galway, 1966, occupying purpose-built house; d. 22 April. DIW DIL IF OCIL
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First Performances, A Play of Galway Life (Abbey, 11 Feb. 1946); Home is the Hero (Abbey, July 1952); Twilight of A Warrior (Abbey, 1955); The Voice of Doolin [dir. Cyril Cusack] (Dublin Theatre Festival, 1960).
Plays, Mungo’s Mansion: A Play of Galway Life (London: Macmillan 1946; rep. 1957), [ded. to his wife Peggy]; Vacant Possession (London: Macmillan 1948); Home is the Hero (London: Macmillan 1953); Twilight of A Warrior (London: Macmillan 1956); The Voice of Doolin unpublished.
Novels, Quench the Moon (London: Macmillan 1948), Do., (NY: Viking 1948; Dingle: Brandon 1995); I Am Alone (London: Macmillan 1949); Rain on the Wind (London: Macmillan 1950), Do., (Dingle: Brandon 1994); The Bogman (London: Macmillan 1952), Do., (Dingle: Brandon 1994), 288pp.; Sunset on the Window-Panes (London: Macmillan 1954), 323pp.; Sullivan (London: Macmillan 1957); Seek the Fair Land (London: Macmillan 1959); The Silent People (London: Macmillan 1962; Pan 1965); The Scorching Wind (London: Macmillan 1964); Island of the Great Yellow Ox (London: Macmillan 1966); Brown Lord of the Mountain (London: Macmillan 1967), Do,. (Dingle: Brandon 1995), and Do., trans. as Le Seigneur de la Montagne ([Paris:] Terre de Brume 1998), 303pp.; The Flight of the Doves (London: Pan 1971); [See also Pan Book and Papermac edns. of Macmillan prose titles in uniform series.]
Short Stories, The Green Hills and Other Stories (London: Macmillan 1956); God Made Sunday and Other Stories (London: Macmillan 1962; rep. Dingle: Brandon 1996); The Coll Doll and Other Stories (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1969); City of the Tribes (Dingle: Brandon Press 1997), 256pp.
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Robert Hogan, ed., ‘Introduction’, Seven Irish Plays 1946-1964 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota 1967), [q.p.].
Robert Hogan, After the Irish Renaissance: A Critical History of the Irish Drama since 'The plough and the stars' (Minneapolis: of Minnesota 1967), pp.65-70.
Noël Debeer, ‘The Irish Novel Looks Backward’, in Rafroidi and Maurice Harmon, eds., The Irish Novel in Our Time, Université de Lille 1975-76, pp.106-23, espec. p.106.
Roswitha Drees, ‘Die Darstellung irischer Geschichte im Erzahlwerk Walter Mackens’ [‘The Presentation of Irish History in the Work of Walter Macken’] (Diss., Wuppertal, 1982; Frankfurt: Lang 1983).
James M. Cahalan, Great Hatred, Little Room: The Irish Historical Novel (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1983), Chap. 6, esp. pp.157-69. See also Irish Book Lover, Vol. 30.
Mary Moloney, ‘Walter Macken’s Galway’ [Irish Times, q.d., 2001].
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Kevin Rockett, et al., eds., Cinema & Ireland (London: Routledge 1988), discusses Home is the Hero (1959), a film adapted from successful Abbey play by Emmet Dalton Productions; in production at Ardmore when the studio was officially opened by Seán Lemass; When Home &c opened in Dublin April 1959 Walter Macken was widely praised for his performance, ‘one of the greatest characterizations the screen has ever given us’ (Sunday Press); it also brought doubts about Abbey play adaptations (Sunday Ind.); produced Ardmore studios; Paddo, ‘the Goliath of Galway’, kills the father of Maura, his son Willie’s childhood sweetheart; imprisoned; returns after five years; conflict with son and daughter; tries to stop Willie and Maura marrying and Josie, his sister from a relationship with village playboy; he nearly kills another man before Willie subdues him to accepting role of responsible husband and father. (Op. cit., pp.106-07.) Note also that Macken appeared in the film version of The Quare Fellow (UK 1962); video release.
Desmond Clarke, Ireland in Fiction [Pt II] (Cork: Royal Carbery 1985), lists Quench the Moon (London: Macmillan 1948), 409pp. [Stephen Riordan, with Paddy Rice, Thomasheen Flannery, schoolboys at ‘Killduff’, Connemara, hates father, loves mother; in love with sister of bitter enemy, Malachai Finnerty; tragic ending]; I Am Alone (Macmillan 1949) [Galway emigrant labourer; driven out of house by religious fanaticism of uncle; in love with English Maureen; drawn into company with IRA-man wanted for attack on Coventry]; Rain on the Wind (Macmillan 1950) [Mico, the Galway fisherman, his brother Tom at university; girl he loves in Galway; descriptions of storm]; The Bogman (Macmillan 1952) [Galway small farmers; the neighbours burn out Cahal Kinsella, a half-tinker and rebel against forced marriage and social convention]; Sunset on the Window Panes (Macmillan 1954), Connemara, irresponsible Bart seduces Sheila; his brother Joseph, a failed priest, sees a vision of Our Lady, and brings ignominy on the family, dies; The Green Hills (Macmillan 1956) [twenty-one stories of Galway and Connemara]; Sullivan (Macmillan 1957) [career of the son of a Galway dock-labourer as actor in Dublin, London, and New York, with an unadmirable hero]; Seek the Fair Land (1959) [Cromwellian times, siege of Drogheda, Dominic McMahan, Murdoc O’Flaherty, and Fr. Sebastian travel West; Murdoc kills Sir Charles Coote and dies himself [latest title listed in IF2]. Note Brown Lord of the Mountain (1967), in which man who deserts his bride to wander the world returns to find a dg. to look after him and begins to bring prosperity to his valley until a terrible crime turns him to vengeance] (Books Ireland notice to Brandon ed., April. 1995).
Brandon Catalogue lists rep. edns. of The Bogman (1994), 288pp. pbk; Rain in the Wind (Brandon 1994), 288pp. pbk.
Belfast Central Public Library holds The Bogman (1952); The Green Hills (1956); Home is the Hero (1953); Mungo’s Mansion (1946); Rain on the Wind (1950); Sunset on the Window-Panes (1954); Vacant Possession (1948).
Mungo’s Mansion, set in 2nd story room in Buttermilk Lane, Galway, with chars. and ‘innumerable children’ [see 1957 Macmillan ed.]; Vacant Possession (Macmillan 1948), 3 acts; includes Author’s note disclaiming suggestion that Galway is a city of slums, with remarks commending the building schemes of the Corporation; ded. to ‘my beloved Taibhdhearc na Gaillimhe, that small idealistc theatre’.
Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)