Mr McCabe's work includes the play, King of the Castle and novel, Death and Nightingales, which was described by author Colm Tóbín as “one of the great Irish masterpieces of the century”, as reported in The Irish Times.
Having lived near Clones, Co Monaghan for the past 65 years, Mr McCabe was a fierce critic of violence and sectarianism during the Troubles, penning a trilogy of screenplays for RTÉ in the 1970s titled: Cancer, Heritage and Siege.
Mr McCabe, who was a member of Aosdána, attended Castleknock College in Dublin before studying English and History at University College Cork.
In 2002, he was awarded the Butler Literary Award for Prose by the Irish Cultural Institute, followed by the AWB Vincent Literary Award from the American Ireland Fund in 2006.
Mr McCabe is survived by his wife, Margot and their four children, including actor Ruth McCabe.
