A great loss to Irish theatre, a leading light to actors in Galway and above all, a gentleman with an innate sense of fair play. These were among the tributes paid to actor Mick Lally by friends and former colleagues in Galway following the shock news of his death on Tuesday.

His Druid co-founders, Marie Mullen and Garry Hynes led the tributes, which included a round of applause in his memory following Tuesday night’s performance of the company’s current production, The Silver Tassie.

Mick had been suffering from emphysema for several years, but none of his friends had expected his life to end like this, said a shocked Garry Hynes, who had been in transit from Finland on Tuesday and who subsequently travelled to Galway with Dublin-based Marie to dedicate The Silver Tassie to his memory.

The Tourmakeady-born actor will be forever associated with the character of Miley in Glenroe, but it was in Galway that he cut his acting teeth and first demonstrated his formidable talent.

The native Irish speaker attended St Mary’s College in the city and continued his studies at UCG, where he appeared regularly in productions with the college’s Cumann Drámaíochta and An Taibhdhearc Theatre.

After qualifying a teacher, he worked in Tuam for several years but continued to act with an Taibhdhearc Theatre Company. So when Garry Hynes and Marie Mullen approached him in the Cellar Bar in 1975 asking him to play Christy Mahon in a production of The Playboy of the Western World in the Jesuit Hall, he accepted.

That marked the beginning of Druid.

Read our full tribute with photographs in this week's Connacht Tribune