Marty Mulligan delivers touching tribute for Manchán Magan

Síofra Grant

In 2006 Marty Mulligan met Manchán Magan during the first Mindfield at Electric Picnic, they became fast friends and for the next 20 years would see one another as they performed in their respective Mindfield tents, the Word tent for Marty and the Irish tent for Manchán.

That continued until Manchán’s passing in October of 2025.

Manchán touched the lives of so many people, he helped revive a love for the Irish language, and the mythology of the country. This year, the 20th anniversary of Mindfield, Marty resolved to perform a tribute to his dearly departed friend.

"It went really well, myself and another fella called Bobbo the Bard, talked about Manchán. I talked about our initial meeting at the first spoken word performance at Electric Picnic 20 years ago.

"I told some of my favourite stories from mythology and one in particular that Manchán would often discuss, Bobbo then took over and I came back up after."

Manchán was a huge promoter of Irish mythology, a passion he and Marty shared. The myth that Marty recited was by Irish author Ella Young ‘The Earthshapers’. It tells the story of the Tuatha Dé Dannan as they came to earth.

"I haven’t met many people in my travels who knew that story but Manchán knew it well, he would have been an Ella Young fan.

"It was my first time performing it at Electric Picnic. I’ve done it out on the Hill of Uisneach."I hadn’t really done the story time at the picnic, I’m too busy doing other stuff, like being a rockstar," he joked.

Marty also discussed Bressie’s tribute to Manchán which he delivered in the theatre tent of Mindfield. There he played a song, which Marty said will also be played at Bressie’s concert in Mullingar this Friday, October 9. It was a moving performance for Marty and those who knew Manchán – he said he felt like his friend was there with him.

"When Bressie started playing his piece, I felt quite emotional so I put my head down. I was just listening to the music and then I felt someone touching my back. I looked up and saw Manchán’s picture on the screen and I felt like he was there.

"It’s hard to describe it – it was a lot of emotion because he was such a beautiful man, and Bressie’s piece was so beautiful that there we were, big grown men, shedding tears."

As emotional as the performance was, Marty explained that, "there’s a sadness, but there’s also a joy about it in a sort of strange way because you feel that we’re all lucky and blessed to have known him".

There were multiple performances from many Mullingar bands and artists over the EP weekend. According to Marty, the Word Tent is affectionately called, the Mullingar tent, by fellow Mindfield organisers.

"It was amazing," he said. "And I say it every year that it was the best one ever but this year really felt like it was.

"I had a great crew, they looked after everything so I could get on with the shows and do my stuff so it went brilliantly.

"The whole thing was a huge success, all of the Mullingar bands were brilliant."

The first anniversary of Manchán's passing was Friday last, October 2.