29/03/2026
🎭MEET THE PLAYWRIGHT OF THE TANGLER ::🎭
Hugh Brendan McCann (1940–2024)
From Kilconny in Belturbet, Brendan McCann was an award-winning playwright and poet, as well as a lifelong educator and community leader.
After Belturbet Dramatic Society was revived in the 1970s, Brendan wrote and directed its first stage production, Perry Como’s Leaving Town, which won the All-Ireland title for Belturbet Dramatic Society.
Over the decades that followed, he wrote 21 plays - many based in his native border region. His plays produced by the drama society include Kernaghan’s Law, Lebanon Patrol and The Tangler in Court. After his border drama ‘Volkswagen Joe’ reached the All-Ireland finals, it was adapted into a TV drama broadcast on RTÉ, winning numerous national and international awards.
He was also an active community organiser, a key figure in All-Ireland Skittles and a co-founder of the Festival of the Erne.
Brendan devoted 36 years to Loreto College, Cavan, serving as a highly-regarded English teacher and vice-principal, before 11 years as the first lay principal there.
The first of his plays for the school, ‘The Choir Practice’ was inspired by his wife’s choir at Drumalee Church and gave Tina Kellegher her first acting role.
In 2017, Brendan McCann published a poetry collection called ‘Erne Valley’.
The Belturbet Dramatic Society are grateful to the family of Brendan for gifting us the script- for the next revival of the group .
Looking forward to seeing somebof you the weekend after Easter
April 10th,11th or 12th
To book - contact any cast member or use the eventbrite link below 🎭....................................https://BelturbetDramaticSociety.eventbrite.com
