Local Author for RTÉ Documentary

Cliona Connolly

Monaghan Post

IN A gripping and insightful Arts Lives documentary, Patrick McCabe, one of Ireland¹s most original writers, tells his own story.   

Author of The Butcher Boy, Breakfast on Pluto and the recent IMPAC literary award nominated, Winterwood, in Patrick McCabe – Blood Relations, Mr McCabe himself, his family and friends describe the influences that shaped him and his extraordinary writing. 

Mr McCabe talks about his childhood, his career and for the first time, the tragic circumstances surrounding his parents’ deaths.  He tells how they marked him and his fiction, and how they were the inspiration for his best-known work, The Butcher Boy,­ a book haunted by their memory.  McCabe also tells how the love of his children helped to heal the wounds of his childhood and released his potential as a writer.

The local man grew up in Clones, where he lives today, with his wife Margot and his daughters, Ellen and Katie.  In this documentary, he recalls the mix of characters that Irish rural life offered up and how this life provided him with unceasing inspiration for his writing.  His brother, Eugene, and his sisters, Dympna and Mary add to this commentary about his early family life in Monaghan and discuss how his creative talents emerged at an early age. 

The film also includes contributions from writers Colm Tóibín, Eugene McCabe and Dermot Bolger who provide insights into McCabe’s life and writing, as well as clips from Neil Jordan’s film adaptation of The Butcher Boy and excerpts from McCabe’s other works.

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