Tuesday, August 02, 2016

The passing of Jim Motherway

The Diary has learned with personal sadness of the unexpected death of Jim Motherway, from Perth in Western Australia and formerly from Kilcullen.

He will be very deeply missed by his loving wife Lucy, their children Ann, Pamela, Ivan, Jennifer and James, all their extended family and their many friends in Perth and Kilcullen.

Many in Kilcullen will remember the Motherways, who lived here through the sixties and seventies before emigrating down under.

Jim, formerly an Army officer, also established a holiday business in Ireland called Funtrek, where he led small groups of people on holidays to what were then exotic and hard-to-get-to places.

He was also an enthusiastic member of the Kilcullen Drama Group, with one of his memorable parts being the bishop in John B Keane’s ’The Field’. Jim and Lucy maintained their interest in drama in Perth, and their son Ivan is very involved in professional theatre. Last year, Jim played the part of the Judge in John Banville’s ‘The Broken Jug’ — a translation from Heinrich von Kleist's classic comic masterpiece ‘Der Zerbrochne Krug’ — with Ivan as joint director in a production by the Irish Theatre Players in Perth.

Our deepest condolences to the family, and may Jim rest in peace.