Remembering Manchán Magan 1970-2025

There’s an upcoming item in my diary with lines through it for Thursday 27th November. It reads: 7.30 Siamsa Tíre, Arán & Im, Manchán. This was Manchán Magan’s show (Arán agus Im meaning Bread and Butter), celebrating the Irish language in an engaging, bilingual way as he prepared sourdough bread and home-churned butter. Manchán’s ideas continue to feed and nourish so many people, butter or no.

A quiet email came on September 2nd saying that, due to a setback with his health, he was cancelling his entire Irish tour. This didn’t sound good. There was nothing online about it. Perhaps it would go away, still. I liked to think so. He’s a very magical man, I thought to myself. Maybe even one with superpowers. Yet Manchán had said in his TV programme Listen to the Land Speak that medics told him the cancer would come back and spread and he was accepting this as his journey.

Portals

I first came across Manchán Magan in early 2022 when I opened his book Tree Dogs, Banshee Fingers and Other Irish Words for Nature. The cover drew me in, and on opening it I experienced a flash of inspiration for a novel. It began with just a picture: an older man in a souterrain seeing into another era. I bought the book there and then, opening it regularly as I wrote. It acted as a kind of inspiration portal to me. From there I began to read his other books, which had the same effect.

In November, 2024, Manchán came to Siamsa Tíre, Tralee to present Rewilding the Mind: Reconnecting to the Spirit of the Land. The audience were spellbound, and there was a standing ovation at the end. Then in July this year, I finally got to chat to him after his show Ireland in Iceland at the Sneem Festival. I had asked my husband to please get a photo, and then, feeling shy, reneged. Luckily, he ignored me and asked him for the photo. Manchán was so chatty and warm. And, Ireland being Ireland, his mother comes from just down the road in Ballylongford.

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The Magic of Nature

When I was preparing the workshops for Voices of the Hedgerows, Manchán’s work was such a helping hand. He resonated with the participants, and we used quotes and images as springboards for inspiration.

On September 13th, Manchán came from hospital to chat with Brendan O’Connor on RTE Radio 1. At that time, he didn’t realise he had so little time left. A man with many plans and much to do. The prolific writer and broadcaster died on the 2nd of October.

Maidhm bháistí (cloudburst) at the Hill of Uisneach

Manchán’s wish was to have some of his ashes spread on the Hill of Uisneach, sacred centre of Ireland. So this is where his month’s mind was held. His wife and family and the generous community of Uisneach welcomed thousands. There was weather of every sort. It was as though so many things Manchán had written and talked about had to be demonstrated there on the sacred hill. The crowd roared with laughter in response to a driving shower of hailstones. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one thinking about his latest book, Ninety-Nine Words For Rain (And One For Sun). When his wife spoke about the signs people told her they’d been getting that they believed were from the man himself, a huge rainbow began to arc across the sky.

It is often said of Manchán, that he had one foot in this world and one foot in the other. Could it be that, wherever he is now, he still does?

Go raibh mile maith agat, Manchán.

Travel well, dear soul.

Manchán féasta

Here is a collection of all things Manchán to savour. If you have any more you think would go nicely in this collection, please let me know so I can add them.

Manchán’s books