Tribute evening to honour the late Eddie O'Kane next month

A tribute evening to celebrate the life of the late Eddie O'Kane (1948-2022) Cavanacor House, Ballindrait will be held in the auditorium at the Alley Theatre, Strabane next month.

It will feature songs, stories, interviews and reminiscences. There will be contributions from Eddie's children, grandchildren, relations, friends and collaborators.

The tribute evening will coincide with an exhibition in the gallery curated by his son, David O'Kane who summed up his father like this: "Not only was your mind encyclopedic but your curiosity and fascination with life in so many of its aspects was unquenchable.  It would probably be easier to list the things in life that didn’t interest you rather than attempt to outline the myriad subjects that did".

Eddie O’Kane cultivated a lifelong interest in the social, historical, and literary past of Strabane and neighbouring Lifford. He served as president of the Donegal Historical Society (1999-2001) and on the executive for many years.

He was passionately involved in history, art and education and promoted the Schools’ Essay Competition and represented the Donegal Historical Society on the Federation of Ulster Local Studies, where he served as chairman from 2004 -2005 and vice-chairman from 2002 -2004.

He was actively involved in the Donegal Archaeological Survey Group established by the Society in 1980. He saved Lifford Courthouse from demolition along with Leo Friel and Kevin McIntyre and was interviewed by the RTE television programme Nationwide about this in 2020.

From 2017-2019 he was a committee member for the updated publication of Donegal Book of Honour for which he was treasurer from 2001 -2006. He lectured at LYIT (now ATU Donegal) from 1975-2009 and his teaching in fine art, computing and multimedia was inspirational for several generations of students.

He conducted several surveys of Historical Heritage Assets for Northern Ireland Environment Link along with his daughter Marianne. He explored and strengthened the writer Flann O’Brien’s legacy through numerous research and art projects in collaboration with his son David with exhibitions in Lifford, Strabane, Dublin, Salzburg, Berlin and Boston.

He conducted extensive research on Cavanacor House where along with his wife Joanna he established a museum and gallery which was open from 1990-2020 Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith visited the house and acknowledged it as the ancestral home of James Knox Polk, 11th President of the United States as a result of Eddie’s research into the history of the house

The Thursday, October 5 event will begin at 7pm with the opening tea/coffee reception with harp recital followed at 7.45pm by the tribute evening in the auditorium.  

Booking essential; to book e-mail mariannejok@gmail.com