06/10/2025
Thinking of the wonderful whose funeral took place here in Dublin today.
Like many of us, I would have seen Manchán over the years on telly championing the language he loved so much. But Manchán was also one of the very first storytellers I had the priviiledge of working with.
Back in 2014, I was organising a radio listening night dedicated to the power of personal storytelling with
I invited Manchán to share a story on the night too, eager to impress but not sure what I was looking for.
this was his enthusiastic reply.
“Julien,
Below are another few stories, just in case..
- my time as a money-launderer and nanny to drug-runners in British Columbia;
- my time in charge of food production for a primal-screaming, sex-therapy cult in a FARC-controlled valley of the Columbian Andes
- my long period in a hovel in the Himalayas of insane introspection and urine drinking, and working in a l***r station, until my brother came to rescue me in 1997
What a life well lived! In the end we went with a story about the time he ran a hostel in the middle of the jungle, along the Ecuador/Peruvian border. When war broke out, the military conscripted staff from the hostel & Manchán had to decide who to send to war. The story ended with the disappearance of an indigenous language, as its tribes people were killed in the war.
Manchán told the story that night to a rapt audience with warmth, humour but also that soft space for the audience to reflect , that he always managed to carve out in his work.
I was always indebted to the man for being so generous with his time and energy that night & helping start my own journey into the world of personal stories.
As he’s celebrated today, it’s only fitting now that he’ll be fondly and proudly remembered by people for years to come, through all the wonderful stories he not only lived but shared with the World.
