Serial adventurer Falvey to share experiences on stage
Now serial adventurer Pat Falvey is facing one of his biggest challenges.
He’s has agreed to star in a new one-man stage show about his life and adventures.
And in typical Pat Falvey fashion, he went to the ends of the earth to find someone to write it.
Cork-born Mike Bowen, a financial planner, songwriter, author and journalist who emigrated to Australia in 1974, was in Ireland last week researching the project.
He has already spent time with Mr Falvey at his Kerry base, and he met Mr Falvey’s mother Abina in Cork last week.
He said he is very excited about what will be his first play which will be produced by well-known theatre figure, Charlotte O’Byrne, and which it is hoped will be premiered in Cork Opera House next year.
“I don’t think the people of Ireland fully comprehend Pat’s achievements,” Mr Bowen said.
Falvey left school aged 15 determined to be a millionaire, and built up a multi- million pound property business. But by the time he was 29, he was bust.
His life changed after a chance encounter took him hill-walking and his first venture to Kerry’s Carrauntoohil made him vow to climb Mount Everest.
By the time he was 34, he stood on Everest and went on to become one of Ireland’s most celebrated, and controversial adventurers.
He has been to Everest four times, scaling its summit from both its north and south faces.
He is the only man in the world to have climbed the highest peaks in every continent twice.
He has trekked to the South Pole and last week, he and his companion, Dr Clare O’Leary, were forced to abandon their assault on the North Pole.
Mr Bowen said the play will focus on the man behind the headlines.
“It will be not just about the mountain climbing, but about what I call, the river of life,” he said.
“It’s a fascinating story about a fascinating man. He is what Ireland needs at the moment — he’s an inspiration.
“He found his way out of a dark negative maze into a positive position.”
Mr Bowen, who comes from the same Cork suburb as Mr Falvey, said their lives are similar in many ways.
Mr Bowen was born in the 40s off Shandon Street to an alcoholic father and a mother who suffered from TB.
He struggled with dyslexia and was told at school he would amount to nothing.
He couldn’t read when he left school aged 12 and he learned a trade.
He worked with Irish Roofing and later became a paint maker with Redmond’s Paint Factory on Blarney Street.
In 1974 he emigrated to Melbourne and within months, he had became a successful financial consultant and planner.
He launched his autobiography, A Time of Secrets, in 2005, and has written for Australian and American newspapers and today, he provides financial advice through his Melbourne- based company, Aon.
An accomplished songwriter, Mr Bowen worked on the revamp of the Eurovision Song Contest in the early 90s, which resulted in the introduction of tele-voting.
He is a past president of the Australian Songwriters Association.
He was a board member of the Irish Australian Chamber of Commerce and a member of Melbourne’s Celtic Club, Australia’s oldest Irish club.
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