Life
1929-2015 [or Sean]; b. Dublin, 7 May 1929; son of Jack McCann who worked at Leopardstown Racecourse; grew up in Stillorgan and ed. at St. Laurence’s NS; worked at horse stables and also with greyhounds at Shelbourne Pk.; moved to Britain permanently with his father, 1945, settling near Pimlico; joined RAF for livelihood; m. Sally McGonigle, from Garvagh, Co. Derry, Port Said, Egypt, 1 Aug. 1950; one time in Egypt; became sports broadcaster for BBC on his return to England; moved to Dublin with their three children, 1963, taking job in features sect. of Irish Press; hosted Irish women writer on his Petticoat Panel page;
gave writing classes at People’s College, Dublin; worked with David Marcus on New Writing and adapted Merriman’s Midnight Court for the stage with Marcus; retired from the Irish Press in 1989; cultivated roses and ultimately elected Hon. Vice-Pres. of British Royal National Rose Soc.; wrote on wine as a conoisseur in Evening Press in the 1970s; issued 25 books in his career incl. compendiums of Irish writers and books on sport; his five children with Sally were Siobhan, Sean, Oonagh (all born in England) with Colum [q.v.] and Ronan (both born in Ireland). DIW
Works
incl. The World of Brendan Behan (1965; NY 1966); The World of Sean O’Casey [New English Library] (London: Frewin 1966), 251pp.; also The Story of the Abbey Theatre (1967); The Wit of the Irish (1968); The Wit of Oscar Wilde (1969); The Fighting Irish (1972); The Irish in Love (1973); All the World’s Roses (1974); We Are the Champions (1975); his is the father of Colm McCann [q.v.].
[ See article on Sean McCann by Liz Evers in the Dictionary of Irish Biography [RIA] (2009) - available online; accessed 30.10.2023. ]
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