Patrick MacGill was born into a farming family near Glenties in the parish of Inishkeel, Co Donegal in 1889. When he was twelve years of age he went to the Hiring Fair in Strabane Co.Tyrone and hired with a farmer. When he had worked two years as a farm labourer he absconded to Scotland with […]
Monk Gibbon was born in Dublin in 1896. He studied in Oxford from 1915 but the following year year joined the British Army and served in France. On leave in Dublin in Easter, 1916, he was involved in the incident in the Irish Rising when Major Francis Vane had Captain Colthurst court-martialed for the murder […]
J.P. Donleavy was born in New York City in 1926 and came to Ireland following World War II. He is the author of eleven novels including The Ginger Man (Paris, Olympia Press, 1955); A Singular Man (Boston, Atlantic Monthly Press/LIttle Brown & Company, 1964/London, The Bodley Head, 1964); The Saddest Summer of Samuel S (New […]
Robert Greacen was born in Derry in 1920. His poetry includes The Bird (1941); Northern Harvest, (Belfast, Derrick MacCord, 1944); One Recent Evening (1944); The Undying Day (London, The Falcon Press, 1948); A Garland for Captain Fox (Dublin, The Gallery Press, 1975); I, Brother Stephen (Dublin, St. Beuno’s Hand-Printed Limited Editions, 1978, illustrated Barbara Deane); […]
Denis Johnston was born in Dublin in 1901. His plays include The Old Lady Says ‘No’ (Dublin, The Gate Theatre, 1929); The Moon in the Yellow River (Dublin, The Abbey Theatre, 1931/Jonathan Cape, London, 1932); The Bride for the Unicorn (The Gate Theatre, 1933/ Jonathan Cape, London, 1935); Storm Song (The Gate Theatre, 1934); Blind […]
Brian Keenan was born in Belfast in 1950. He has published one novel, Turlough (London, Jonathan Cape, 2000). His other work includes the autobiographical An Evil Cradling (London, Hutchinson, 1992); concerning his experience as a hostage in the Lebanon; and, with his fellow hostage, John McCarthy, Between Extremes (New York, Bantam Press, 1999); Four Quarters […]
Michael Kerr was born in Ballymoney, Co Antrim, in 1958 and grew up in Portstewart, Co Derry. His autobiography is Our Side of the House (London, Quartet Books, 2002). He lives in Stoneleigh, UK. Michael Kerr at The National Library of Ireland
Clive Staples Lewis was born in Belfast in 1898. His poetry includes Spirits in Bondage ([psued. Clive Hamilton,] 1919); Dymer (London, J. M. Dent/New York, E. P. Dutton & Co. 1926; republished 1950); Narrative Poems (London, ed. Walter Hooper, Geoffrey Bles, 1969); and Poems (London, ed. Walter Hooper, Geoffrey Bles, 1964, 1977). His autobiographical works […]
Aodhan Madden was born in Dublin. His plays for the stage include The Midnight Door (Dublin, The Abbey Theatre, Peacock Stage, 1983); The Dosshouse Waltz (Dublin Theatre Festival, Gemini Theatre Company, 1985); Sensations (Peacock, 1986); Private Death of a Queen (Dublin Theatre Festival, Gemini, 1986), Sea Urchins (Hawkswell, Sligo/Dublin, Project Theatre, Acorn Theatre Company, 1988); […]
David Marcus was born in Cork in 1924. With Terence Smith and SJ White, he edited Irish Writing from 1946-54. He also edited Poetry Ireland, from 1948-54. He moved to London in 1954. On his return to Ireland he edited the seminal New Irish Writing from 1968-1998 in the Irish Press, Dublin, publishing and/or encouraging […]
Lia Mills was born in Dublin. Her novels are Another Alice (Dublin, Poolbeg, 1996); Nothing Simple (Dublin, Penguin Ireland, 2005); and Fallen (Penguin Ireland, 2014). As well as critical articles and short stories, she has also published In Your Face: One Woman’s Encounter with Cancer, Doctors, Nurses, Machines, Family, Friends, and a Few Enemies (Penguin […]
Sam Millar was born in Belfast in 1955. He novels are Dark Souls (Galway, Wynkin deWorde, 2003); Redemption Factory (Dingle, Brandon / Mount Eagle Publications, 2005/New York, Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2006); Bloodstorm (Brandon, 2008); and The Darkness of Bones (Brandon, 2006). His autobiography is On The Brinks (Wynkin de Worde, 2003). A winner of the […]
John Montague was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1929 and reared on the family farm in Co Tyrone. His poetry includes Forms of Exile (1958); Poisoned Lands (Dublin, The Dolmen Press, 1961, 1977); A Chosen Light (1967); Tides (The Dolmen Press, 1971); (The Rough Field (Dolmen, 1972); A Slow Dance (Dolmen, 1975); The Great […]
Dervla Murphy was born in Lismore, Co Waterford, in 1931. Her published works include Full Tilt. Ireland to India with a Bicycle (London, John Murray 1965); Tibetan Foothold (John Murray, 1966); The Waiting Land: A Spell in Nepal (London, John Murray/New York, Trans Atlantic Arts, 1967); In Ethiopia with a Mule (John Murray, 1968); On […]
Christopher Nolan was born in 1965, and grew up in Dublin, overcoming cerebral palsy to write. He has published one collection of poems, Dam-burst of Dreams (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1981). His autobiography, Under the Eye of the Clock (Weidenfeld and Nicholsan, 1987/New York, St Martin’s Press, 1988), won the Whitbread Award. His first novel […]
Sean O’Casey was born John Casey in Dublin in 1880. His major plays are his Three Dublin Plays: The Shadow of a Gunman (Dublin, The Abbey Theatre, 1923), Juno and the Paycock (The Abbey Theatre, 1924), and The Plough and the Stars (The Abbey Theatre, 1926); and The Silver Tassie (London, 1929). The Plough and […]
Frank O’Connor (pen name of Michael O’Donovan) was born in Cork City on September 17, 1903. There is a poignant description of his childhood in the first volume of his autobiography An Only Child. He published two novels, The Saint and Mary Kate (Macmillan, London 1932, 1936/New York 1932 – Blackstaff, Belfast 1990); and Dutch […]
Seán Ó Faoláin was born in Cork in 1900. He was baptized as John Whelan, but adapted the Irish form of his name, which is in turn anglicized to Sean O’Faolain. He fought with the Republican side in the Irish Civil War, and taught in the U.S. in the 1930s. He edited the literary journal […]
Augustus Young is the pen name of James Hogan, who was born in Cork, in 1943. As Augustus Young, his poetry collections include Survival (Dublin, New Writers’ Press, 1969); On Loaning Hill (New Writers’ Press, 1972); The Credit: A Comedy Of Empeiria (London, Menard Press, 1980); The Credit: Book Two, Book Three (Advent/Menard 1986); Days […]
