Pat Nolan, who died on August 11th, was a fine actor whose best work will be remembered only by older theatregoers.
I first saw him in London with the US bound Edwards/ MacLiammoir Dublin Gate Theatre (Embassy, Swiss Cottage, 1947) and as the eponymous hero in Donagh MacDonagh's Happy As Larry (Criterion), before many performances in Dublin at the Gate, Gaiety and for Austin Clarke's Lyric Theatre (Abbey). He frequently appeared in the Pike Theatre, from our first revue (1953), compering impersonating MacLiammoir, and playing the Drunk in Trio to Milo O'Shea's Anarchist.
He created the role of Prisoner B. in Brendan Behan's The Quare Fellow (1954), while Harold Hobson (Sunday Times, May 19th 1957), lauding Anna Manahan in Tennessee Williams's The Rose Tattoo, added: ... but I was even more impressed by... Pat Nolan as the truck driver... (who) gives to this hoodlum fortune hunter... a compelling, fundamental tenderness and a soft, surprised music of speech." He was a lovely man, too.