Niall Tóibín

Niall Tóibín was born in 1929 at Friars' Walk, Cork, the sixth child in a household where Irish flowed as naturally as breath. That southside street gave him a voice later recognised across stages and screens, carrying a language many had forgotten. He left for Dublin in 1947 to clerk for the state, yet the music of his childhood kept returning through every joke and line he spoke.