A deep sense of place pervades the novels of Walter Macken. The Galway writer lived in a dozen homes throughout his life, but most of his novels were written in a period house on Lough He began life in a small terraced end house: 18 St Joseph's Avenue. It was rented from the corporation and a plaque commemorates his birth in 1915. Within a year, Macken's father died at the Somme and in 1927 the family moved to St Jude's, on nearby Henry Street where behind their back window the huge laundry chimney belched black smoke.
Many of Macken's early writings, including the novels Rain On The Wind and Sullivan, and the book of short stories, The City Of The Tribes, and many of his short stories had their setting in this western part of Galway city, increasingly gentrified these days but wreaked with poverty during Macken's childhood.
Macken acted in the Irish-speaking Taibhdhearc theatre and in 1937, he eloped with Peggy Kenny, the eldest daughter of the founder of the Connacht Tribune, Tom Cork Kenny. They lived for two years in London, where his second novel, I Am Alone, was set. Returning to Galway in the summer of 1939, they lived near Whitestrand until 1948, while Macken worked as a producer with the Taibhdhearc. The tenements building opposite the theatre became the backdrop for two of his first plays, Mungo's Mansion and Vacant Pos]session.
The family moved to Dublin in 1948 and Macken joined the Abbey Theatre, living for three years at 31 Ardpatrick Road in Cabra but the West lured Macken back and he bought Gort na Ganiv, on the Glann Road, four miles outside Oughterard. Macken was to live here until 1966. It was the house where The Bogman (set around Eyrecourt, near Ballinasloe) was completed and where most of the remaining novels were written.
The high gable-roofed house was built around 1900 and has a series of rambling rooms running into each other, leading to a sunroom at the back. It remains very much a place apart.
The Mackens moved again in 1966, into the Irish-speaking village of Menlo, just outside Galway. Their architect-designed house was built on a half-acre site. Macken's last novel Brown Lord Of The Mountain had just been published both in London and New York, Macken was working again with the Abbey and he completed his second children's book, Flight Of The Doves in Menlo. It later became a film. He was working on a stage musical called God's Own Country when he died suddenly in the living-room of the Menlo house on April 22nd, 1967. His son Ultan Macken still lives in the house and has a collection of his father's memorabilia.
Further information: Tel 091 765832. My Father, My Son, Ultan Macken's one-man show opens at Dublin's Andrew's Lane Studio on May 28th