While I can’t find anymore information online, I read in one of the Sunday papers that Alan Devlin, the famous Dublin hell-raiser and award-winning actor, died over the weekend at the age of sixty-four.
Rest in peace.
I included a famous anecdote about Devlin in an article back in January 2010, my first ever pub crawl review.
Due its close proximity to the Gaiety, (Neary’s) is frequented by figures from the world of theatre. A back door beside the toilets leads to a lane which in turn leads to the back door of the Gaiety itself. The actor Alan Devlin famously used this as a escape route in 1987:
“Perhaps (Devlin’s) finest hour came while he was playing Sir Joseph Porter in the Gaiety Theatre’s 1987 production of HMS Pinafore.
As stage legend has it, Gilbert and Sullivan’s much-loved operetta was wandering to its predictable conclusion when Devlin turned to the audience, said: “F**k this for a game of soldiers, I’m going home,” and clambered through the orchestra pit, shouting: “Finish it yourself!” and vanished. Still dressed in the flamboyant costume of an admiral, Devlin (scuttled) into Neary’s bar, where he approached the counter, drew his sword and demanded a pint.
And thanks to radio mike technology, the cast and audience in the theatre next door were still able to hear the thespian, ordering a round of drinks and fearlessly critiquing the production he had recently departed.” – Joe O’Shea
Paul Devlin (1947 - 2011). Dublin actor. Picture credit - sheridanflynn
Click on the book for more.
Click on the book for more.
Donal
Ciarán
Sam
Come Here To Me! 
I too was very sorry to hear about this – though I haven’t found any more about it than yourself. Alan put in a sterling performance in my short film, The Wednesdays. He was great to work with (if a little scary). And had pulled the same trick of walking out of a production mid-run in the West End with my film’s lead, Doreen Keogh. So there was unfinished business between them. But at lunch, just before his big scene with her, he took her aside and apologised for his behaviour some 30 years previously. She was thrilled.
You can view the film here. It has done suprisingly well for itself. Feel free to share it. Thanks:
You guys have this story so wrong. I was onstage when it happened. He had been turning up every night more drunk than the night before. And it was only a matter of time before he was going to screw up. He had already randomly varied his delivery for a couple of weeks. The evening he walked off, i spoke to him at the stage door just before the show. He was obviously drunk, and told me that his son had died. We knew we were in trouble when we saw him struggling with a stage hand as he was being put into his “boat” high up in the flys. When the rope was handed to him, he recoiled and said “snake snake”.. When the vamp started up for his patter, he couldn’t remember the words. The rest of us tried to wing it. He eventually said “fuck it, I can’t do it, I’m going home”. And proceeded to walk through the auditorium, stopping to explain himself to an audience membert, and out the front door and across the road to Synott’s, not Neary’s which is at the back of the Gaiety. It’ true that he ordered a drink, but the audience didn’t hear the exchange. The sound guy could hear it in his cans, but he had cut the channel to the PA. He was then thrown out of Synott’s because he couldn’t find any money in his costume. John Kavanagh who was playing Dick Deadeye jumped the dialogue to after Alan’s character’s exit and we soldiered on to the interval. The audience thought it was all part of the show at this stage. We had a very long interval trying to decided whether to pull the show or not. Alan turned up at the stage door and said “if you’re really stuck, I can do the 2nd half”. He was unceremoniously stripped, and him and his clothes were thrown into the back lane. The guy who was playing the Bosun had worked with D’oyley Carte and knew the dialogue and songs so he squeezed into Alan’s costume and did the 2nd half.
I was also on-stage at the time as one of the sailors and can confirm Terry’s report above, the show did in fact go on and made headlines because of this episode, it’s a shame that Alan didn’t get some much needed help for his alcoholism, a sad loss.