Interview: Inside the mind of Jack Matthews, the Wexford writer behind the new play ‘The Unkillable Irishman’

Inside the creative mind of Jack Matthews, the self-described ‘failed hurler’ turned writer behind the new play ‘The Unkillable Irishman’…

An exciting brand-new play is making its debut in Wexford Arts Centre this month.

Wexford Drama Group will be putting on a production of ‘The Unkillable Irishman’, an original play written by Wexford talent Jack Matthews. The show is directed by Linda Hynes, co-directed by Matthews and stars Michael McKenny, Pat Sinnott, Mick Farrell and Sophie Blaney Parslow.

The play is based on the unbelievable true story of ‘Iron Mike’ Malloy, a homeless Irishman who found himself the target of a sinister murder plot in prohibition New York. In 1933, five acquaintances of Malloy’s plotted to murder the Donegal man to profit from an insurance policy placed on his life. There was just one problem – despite their best efforts, Malloy would not die.

For those of you with an appetite for the macabre, this play might sound like the perfect Halloween outing. We were lucky enough to get a chance to catch up with the architect of this play, Jack Matthews, to get an insight into his creative process.

When did you realize you had a passion for theatre?

“Even in school, I was always trying to tell stories and make people laugh. My uncle John would have been in plays so I would’ve seen him do stuff. Everybody used to come to me and be like ‘Oh, your uncle is John Crosbie. He’s brilliant’. He’s a local actor but everyone had this great admiration for what he was able to do. I saw him on stage in some children’s show and he was funny and then I saw him as the devil in the city fair and he was unbelievable, and I was like ‘Right.’

I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I was alright at sport, but I wasn’t very good. I wanted to be good, but I couldn’t. So, I would say I’m a failed hurler (laughs). I’m a failed hurler who became a writer and an actor.”

Where did you get your start?

“I started into Corish-Wallace (Performing Arts School). That’s where I began my drama journey. CBS Has Talent, I would’ve done that. I got great reception for doing stand-up comedy, the impersonations and stuff. Then I wrote a sketch for sixth year, so I suppose that was the first play kind of. I finished school and hadn’t a clue what I wanted to do. I kinda wanted to be an actor but I kinda wanted to have money (laughs).

I did a theatre course for a year in Inchicore in Dublin and then I went on and did the English and history degree in Dundalk. It was really then that I realised I could write.”

Could you walk me through the writing of this play and the hurdles you had to face?

“I saw the story of this guy Mike Malloy. It could’ve been JOE.ie because TG4 were doing a documentary on him. So, I watched the documentary about him and thought this would be a brilliant play.

But man, and I am ashamed to say it, that could’ve been in 2016 or ’17. It might sound like ‘Oh my god, he spent eight years writing this!’. But that wouldn’t be true either. There was definitely times where I wrote a section of it and put it in a drawer and I might not have come back to it for six months or a year.

The development of it as well where I realised some of it was a bit far-fetched. Billy Roche would’ve been a great help to me. I would’ve done a few of his plays. I’d count him as a friend. I’m very lucky. I have his number, and we chat regularly. He said ‘Make sure every character is paying their way’ in the story. I had found, in writing it, that two of the gangsters I had in it were very similar. So, I merged them into one person and, like Billy said, the fella who wasn’t paying his way was gone and this other character took his lines. He was dead right. (The play is) based on a true story but it is a fictional retelling. I think I should put that out there just in case.

So, I would say development, procrastination, COVID of course. Trying to get a director was tricky. Wondering about funding it. I was going to try produce it myself and I really hadn’t a clue. So, I’m very lucky that the Drama Group agreed to actually put it on. I feel like it’s in a place now where it’s ready. It’s ready to go. But I do think he has cursed it a bit. Mike Malloy himself (laughs). He’s putting all these obstacles up. ‘The Unkillable Irishman’ and I was thinking I’ll be dead before this play comes out.”

What is it about the story of Mike Malloy that is so interesting to you?

“The weird thing about it – I have grown up with the piece. What really attracted me at the start was… I just genuinely thought it was funny. This gang took out a life insurance policy on this Irish man, they had a speakeasy and thought ‘We can just bring him in, let him drink whatever he wants and he’ll die of alcohol poisoning’. I just found it comical that they thought ‘We’ll kill this Irish guy’ and he’s just well able for it.

I understood that love of drinking for Irish people. I find it funny that if we’re in a group of friends we’re all saying we love the drink and all this. But then if there’s an English or American person on the telly saying all the Irish want to do is drink, we get so defensive. But we glorify it, like. I guess I found in it genuine Irishness but (also) the emigrant story and the story of loneliness.

He wasn’t just a man who walked into a pub who was having a right time getting all this free drink. He was a man who was probably very lonely. He’s arrived in New York. The place is booming. Then we get the Wall Street crash. We’ve prohibition so he can’t even go to the pub. To take the pub away from him, he doesn’t have that community spirit maybe. What drew me was that not only was there this comedy of drinking but that there was a man who was stuck. When you moved in those days, you didn’t get to come home.

You start thinking of the sad end of it. The empathy for Michael Malloy. Who was a real man and very little is actually known about him. Other than this is how they tried to kill him. It’s the story of his resilience that creates the legend.”

What can people expect from this play?

“I don’t know how to say this but I’d like them to feel like they’re sitting inside one of The Pogues’ songs. I would have been going through a big Pogues phase at the time. It all kind of marries together. Drinking, emigration. Who’s the king of that? Shane MacGowan. He was able to write it perfectly. Some people who read it described it as a rollercoaster. You get in, you go for it and you’re brought on this journey of them trying to kill this man who apparently cannot be killed. So, yeah. A rollercoaster inside a Pogues song (laughs).”

‘The Unkillable Irishman’ will be showing in Wexford Arts Centre from October 23^rd-27^th. For more information, click here.