‘I can do this one last thing for Ken’ – Bruen Avenue proposed in tribute to Galway literary great

Following a fall, he died four days later at University Hospital Galway. For his wife of 42 years, Philomena Kennedy Bruen, the shock is palpable.

“I still say that Ken has left us,” she says. “I cannot say that he died.

“I remember putting my arms around him. I said 'you need a good rest now Ken' and I closed his eyes.”

Almost 18 months on, Philomena wants to honour his legacy.

A proposal to rename a Galway city road in honour of the crime writer will be brought before Galway City Council in September.

Councillor Níall McNelis (Lab) will seek to have the road beside Bruen's former family home in Lower Newcastle renamed 'Bruen Avenue'.

Cllr McNelis plans to bring a motion before the council and hopes the proposal will be considered by the civic naming committee.

Philomena admits it is not something Ken would ever have sought, as he was a humble man. However, she believes he deserves recognition from the city.

“Ken is very successful commercially,” she says.

“He didn't do celebrity. He didn't do cliques. He didn't do openings or large arts festivals. He kept a low profile and was a very humble, friendly, outgoing and a hugely amusing man. I can do this one last thing for Ken.

“It is not something he would ever mention and it is not something he would let me do, but I am not a 'let' kind of woman and by jaysus they will do this for Ken.”

Ken was born at No 9 Eyre Square in 1951, two doors down from O'Connell's pub, and lived there until he was ten years old, when his family moved to Newcastle.

However, Philomena does not want a plaque at his birthplace.

“The big house on the corner was the Bruen 'mansion',” she says of his Newcastle connections.

“I used to call it 'that kip,' but I had to change it when our daughter, Grace, started repeating what I had said! So I called it the 'mansion'.”

And Philomena, affectionately known as Phyl by Ken, is determined. She has always had a strong spirit.

Originally from Bohermore, and now in her 79th year, she says that “anger” has got her through life.

“Anger has gotten me through most of my life,” she says.

“When you come from poverty and are humiliated out of your mind by the time you are five for not having the right clothes or copies, then you live with your shoulders up and you are up for it all the time.”

She also describes how she “fought and fought” for 30 years on behalf of Grace, who has Down syndrome, and how difficult the sudden death of her father has been for their daughter.

While she believes Galway should honour one of its most internationally recognised literary figures, she doesn't want to start a lengthy campaign.

Galway itself is a character in Ken's work, with the city's streets, pubs and people providing the backdrop. His work was translated and read around the world, and he was best known for the Jack Taylor series, featuring the troubled Galway private investigator played by Scottish actor and Game of Thrones star Iain Glen.

The books were subsequently adapted for television, bringing familiar Galway locations to international audiences.

The legacy of the novels can still be seen in the city through Jack Taylor-themed walking tours, which take visitors to locations associated with the books, including Charlie Byrne's Bookshop and the Crane bar.

“They should name something after him,” she says.

“We have a statue to Oscar Wilde, from Dublin, who is bronzed up with a total stranger sitting beside him on Shop Street.

“We don't know who that fellow is sitting beside Oscar Wilde. It's not Edmund Burke, it is some other fellow.

“On the prom, there is a poem by Seamus Heaney, who is from Derry.”

Cllr McNelis also believes the road traditionally referred to locally as the 'Mass Path', beside the Bruen family's former home in Lower Newcastle, is an appropriate location to honour the award-winning author because of its immediate connection to his childhood home.

“As a tribute to Ken, and his family, I suggest the road be renamed, ‘Bruen Avenue,’” says Cllr McNelis.

“Ken Bruen’s books were all set in Galway City, making an enormous contribution to the city of his birth.

“Ken was a writer who refused celebrity or cliques. His Jack Taylor series put Galway City on television screens worldwide.”

International interest in Bruen's work has continued since his death.

Philomena is still managing his estate and receives late-night phone calls from his agents in Los Angeles.

In November 2025, Strong Island secured worldwide film and television rights to Bruen's Inspector Brant crime novels, with plans to make new films based on two of the books, Calibre and Vixen.

“There is just so much to do,” she says.

For her, however, there is also unfinished business at home.

Cllr McNelis's proposal for Bruen Avenue is expected to come before Galway City Council as a motion in September, with supporters hoping it will then progress through the city's civic naming process.

“The city should now thank him for his contribution to Galway,” he said.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.