MacConghail to succeed Barnes as Abbey director

THE adviser to the Minister for Arts Fiach MacConghail is to be the new director of the national theatre.

He will take over the troubled Abbey Theatre from Ben Barnes whose controversial tenure ends in December.

A highly-criticised cost- cutting plan, which involved proposed redundancies, an unpopular programme last year and a spiralling deficit, led to calls for Ben Barnes to resign from the Abbey last September.