A cast of Dalkey characters that will live on

On his home turf of Dalkey, the popular and supportive playwright who brought the area to life will be badly missed, writes Maeve Binchy

LONG BEFORE DALKEY had become known as south Dublin's Gold Coast, Hugh Leonard had put the place on the map. His cast of Dalkey characters will live on forever, wonderful three-dimensionsal people from Da, Home Before Dark, A Life, all of them as real as if they strolled through the streets of Dalkey today.

He mentioned real people in his books and plays, people I knew myself, such as the Comerfords, such as Dr Enright. It all helped to strengthen the sense of community that the place already had. And, in addition, if all these people were mentioned in the Abbey Theatre, London’s West End and on Broadway, then we must be a very important place altogether.

Hugh Leonard (or Jack, as everyone in Dalkey called him) was a familiar figure in his neighbourhood. Very knowledgeable about films, he was often consulted by people about what video or DVD to rent, and in the local bookshop, the Exchange, other customers asked his advice.

Most people in Dalkey, on hearing of his death, had their own particular Hugh Leonard story. One hadn’t seen him around for a few weeks and thought that he must be in hospital, another remembered when they were filming Da in the area and Hugh Leonard had been ashamed that the big film trucks were taking up so much space.

My own best memories of him are of when he was literary editor at the Abbey Theatre between 1976 and 1977. He was so very good and helpful to anyone starting off, and without tearing the thing to pieces managed to suggest how it could be improved.

It is very, very hard to tell someone who has slaved over a manuscript that it just won’t work. And Hugh Leonard had a reputation of saying it as it was.

But I will always be grateful for what he told me about dialogue. He said that my characters were inclined to make long speeches. One would speak, the others would all listen respectfully and await their turn. He looked around the restaurant where we were having lunch.

“Have a look at people,” he suggested. “You’ll see how they talk if you do.” And in a minute I learned that people interrupt each other, have unfinished sentences, even interrupt themselves with a new thought.

Everyone else who was helped by him would say exactly the same. The man who could be so frightening at times treated newcomers to the game with an extraordinarily gentle hand. If a theatre advertised a Hugh Leonard play, the place was full. Even his adaptations brought in the crowds. I remember so well his version of Great Expectations, which was so touching that we were all sniffing and blowing our noses heavily in the audience at the decent, good Joe Gargery, who kept saying that young pain-in-the-neck Mr Pip was a gentleman now and must live the life of one.

It sent us all running back to Dickens. It was as if Hugh Leonard had rediscovered the warm generous character, Lar, that he had invented, a man who couldn’t be insulted because his heart was so big and generous. An amateur dramatic society needs only mention one of his plays and potential cast members get excited immediately. There was one simple fact about them: they worked.

Jack had not been happy when he was growing up in Dalkey, but I hope he was happy there in the later part of his life.

He was shocked at the death of his first wife, Paule, in 2000 and wrote her letters to try and keep her alive for himself and others. He found happiness again with his second wife Kathy and was always delighted with and proud of his daughter Danielle.

Local people have been commenting that he looked a little shaken in the past months, and quite frail as he sat having lunch in one of Dalkey’s many pubs. He will be missed at Dalkey Heritage Centre, where he helped to present the story of the area in a user-friendly way. He will be missed in the two dramatic societies, Dalkey Players and St Patrick’s, where he was always supportive and enthusiastic when they put on his works.

He called his own newspaper column in the Sunday Independent"The Curmudgeon", and seemed to delight in listing and dealing with the nonsense and irritation in Irish life. But, despite this stance, I really hope he knew he was appreciated on his home ground and that people love the Guided Literary Walks that set out regularly from Dalkey Town Hall to visit the places he made famous in his books and plays. These parts of Dalkey will never be forgotten because they were brought to the attention of a whole other world by one of Dalkey's best-known sons.