Denis Conway: 'I did part-time teaching to keep the wolf from the door'

Cork actor Denis Conway is back in his native city to appear in Making History, a Brien Friel play he says is packed with relevance

Denis Conway is from Whitechurch in Co Cork. 

When Cork-born actor Denis Conway first performed the role of the Earl of Tyrone, Hugh O’Neill, in the Brian Friel play, Making History, in 1992 in Rome, he had an idea. If he ever had his own theatre company, he decided he would tour the play, following the path of the Flight of the Earls and ending in the Eternal City where O’Neill is buried having died there in penury. 

With his now defunct company, Oubourous, Conway achieved his goal, touring the play across Europe in 2007/8, marking the 400th anniversary of The Flight of the Earls.