Walter Macken
Before he was one of Galway's best-loved novelists, Walter Macken was an actor on the small stage of An Taibhdhearc on Middle Street, where he met Peggy, his wife. He went on to the Abbey and to Broadway, where he played the lead in M. J. Molloy's The King of Friday's Men and in his own play Home Is the Hero, and the success of Rain on the Wind, his third book, made him a full-time writer.
Checked against the source on 2026-09-19.
MaxPride, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
An Taibhdhearc on the 3D model; tap a pin for its page and directions.
Books
Macken wrote short stories, novels and plays: the collections The Green Hills of 1956, God Made Sunday of 1962 and The Coll Doll of 1969, later gathered by Brandon as City of the Tribes and The Grass of the People; five story collections for children; and the children's novels Island of the Great Yellow Ox of 1966 and Flight of the Doves of 1963, which was made into a film. He died on 22 April 1967, not quite 52. The model on this page pins An Taibhdhearc, and the guide to the theatre tells its own story.
Questions people ask
Which Walter Macken book was filmed?
Where did Walter Macken act?
Written from Wikipedia, "Walter Macken" (CC BY-SA 4.0), read on 2026-09-19, and from the OpenStreetMap places on the model. Nothing has been added from memory; follow the source for its footnotes.