Irish novelist Eugene McCabe dies at 90

Eugene McCabe was a renowned Irish novelist, short story writer, playwright and television screenwriter

Gabija Gataveckaite

Irish novelist Eugene McCabe has died at the age of 90.

Mr McCabe was an Irish novelist, short story writer, playwright and television screenwriter.

He was in Glasgow in July 1930 to Irish parents but lived in Clones in his later years. His family returned to Clones in Monaghan in the early 1940s and he attended University College, Cork.

In the early seventies, Mr McCabe wrote a trilogy of television plays on the differing traditions in Northern Ireland entitled 'Victims' and consisted of 'Cancer', 'Heritage' and 'Siege' and they were broadcasted on RTÉ.

In 1992 he published his novel 'Death and Nightingales'.

He received many awards for his work including 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.

Mr McCabe was a member of Aosdána.