Rita Ann Higgins was born in 1955 in Galway. Her collections are Goddess on the Mervue Bus (Galway, Salmon, 1986); Witch in the Bushes (Salmon, 1988); Goddess and Witch (Salmon, 1989); Philomena’s Revenge (Salmon, 1992); Higher Purchase (Cliffs of Moher, Co Clare, Salmon Publishing, 1996); An Awful Racket (Tarset, UK, Bloodaxe Books, 2001); Throw in […]
Declan Hughes was born in Dublin. A long time writer-in-residence with the Rough Magic Theatre Company, his plays include I Can’t Get Started (Dublin Theatre Festival, 1990); Digging for Fire (Dublin Theatre Festival, 1991); New Morning; Hallowe’en Night; New Morning (London, Bush Theatre/Dublin, Rough Magic Theatre Company, 1993); Twenty Grand (Dublin, The Abbey Theatre, 1998); […]
Maeve Ingoldsby is Writer-in-Residence with Barnstorm Theatre Company. She has written many plays for children, including for Team Theatre Company, two children’s operas, numerous pantomimes and scripts for Radio and TV. Her plays include Firestone (Team Educational Theatre Company, 1991, on tour); Earwigs (Team Educational Theatre Company, 1992, on tour); Tyrannosaurus Twerp (Dublin, Project Arts […]
Pat Ingoldsby was born in Dublin in 1942. Widely broadcast on TV, Radio, since the mid-1990s he has self-published and sold his work on the streets of Dublin, where he is a well-known figure. His poetry includes You’ve Just Finished Reading This Title (Blackrock, The Author, c. 1977); Rhyme Doesn’t With Reason; Up The Leg […]
Jennifer Johnston was born in Dublin in 1930. Her novels have been published in many countries. Her main works are the novels The Captains and the Kings (London, Hamish Hamilton, 1972); The Gates (Hamish Hamilton, 1973); How Many Miles to Babylon? (Hamish Hamilton, 1974); Shadows on our Skin (Hamish Hamilton, 1977); The Old Jest (Hamish […]
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 […]
Marie Jones was born in Belfast in 1951. She was one of the founders of the Charabanc Theatre Company, which was founded to counteract the lack of roles for women, and which produced a series of collaboratively written original works. Contemporaneously, Marie Jones wrote five plays for The Replay Theatre Company, including Under Napoleon’s Nose […]
James Joyce was born in Dublin on February 2, 1882. His poetry includes Chamber Music (London, Elkin Mathews, 1907); Pomes Pennyeach (Paris, Shakespheare & Company, 1927); and Collected Poems (New York, The Black Sun Press, 1963). His collection of short stories is Dubliners (London, Grant Richards, 1914). His play, Exiles, was first performed in 1917 […]
Michael Judge was born in Drumcondra, Dublin on 26 July 1921. He has written many uncollected stories, publishing these from 1941 to 1951. Amongst his many radio plays are The Cardboard Man (CBC, 1958); The Hungry One, (Radio Éireann, 1959); You Don’t Understand (CBC, 1959); Retribution (Radio Éireann, 1959); As Other Men (Radio Éireann, 1961); […]
John B. Keane was born in Listowel, Co Kerry in 1928. He published forty-six works, but is best known for his plays which inlcude Sive; Sharon’s Grave; The Man from Clare; The Year of the Hiker; The Field (which was adapted as a film of the same name); Many Young Men of Twenty; Big Maggie; […]
Molly Keane was born in Co Kildare in 1904 into an Anglo-Irish gentry family, the daughter of Walter Clarmount Skrine of Warleigh Manor, Somerset and Agnes Shakespeare Higginson, who published under the pseudonym Moira O’Neill, and whose novels The Elf Errant and An Easter Vacation, as well as a collection Songs of the Glen of […]
Brendan Kennelly was born in Co Kerry in 1936. He has published over thirty books of poetry. His early poetry includes Cast a Cold Eye (with Rudi Holzapfel, Dublin, The Dolmen Press, 1959); The Rain, the Moon (with Rudi Holzapfel, The Dolmen Press, 1961); The Dark About Our Loves (with Rudi Holzapfel, Dublin, John Augustine […]
Thomas Kilroy was born in 1934 in Callan, Co. Kilkenny. He has published a novel, The Big Chapel (London, Faber & Faber, 1971), which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and was awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize, 1971, but he is best known as a playwright. His plays include The Death and Resurrection of Mr […]
Hugh Leonard (pseudonym of John Keyes Byrne) was born in 1926 and raised in Dalkey, County Dublin. His output is vast and complex, encompassing theatre, including adaptations; television, including Insurrection (RTÉ, 1966), and many adaptations; film, memoir, criticism and journalism. Included amongst his plays are The Big Birthday Suit (Dublin, The Abbey Theatre, 1956); A […]
Liam Lynch was born in Dublin in 1937. His plays include the plays Do Thrushes Sing in Birmingham? (Dublin, The Abbey Theatre, 1962); Soldier (The Abbey Theatre, 1969); Krieg (Dublin, The Project Arts Centre, 1982); Voids (Dublin, Lourdes Hall [Platform Theatre Group] 1982). Strange Dreams Unending was broadcast by RTÉ in 1974. His novels are […]
Ferdia Mac Anna was born in Dublin in 1955. His novels are The Last of the High Kings (London, Viking, 1991); The Ship Inspector (Viking, 1995); and Cartoon City (London, Headline, 2000). The film of The Last of the High Kings was released in 1996. He has edited The Penguin Book of Comic Irish Writing […]
Bryan MacMahon was born in Listowel, Co Kerry in 1909. His plays include The Bugle in the Blood (Dublin, The Abbey Theatre, 1949); The Song of the Anvil (The Abbey Theatre, 1960); The Honey Spike (The Abbey Theatre, 1961); The Master; Jack Furey; The Death of Biddy Early; The Time of the Whitethorn and The […]
(Frederick) Louis MacNeice was born in Belfast in 1907, brought up in Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim and educated in England. He studied Classics and Philosophy at Oxford and both of these subjects informed his poetry. He was known as a translator, literary critic, playwright, autobiographer, BBC producer and feature writer as well as poet. His poetry […]
James J. McAuley was born in Dublin in 1936. His first collection was Observations, published in 1960. Since then his collections have included A New Address (Dublin,The Dolmen Press,1965); Draft Balance Sheet (The Dolmen Press,1978): After The Blizzard (University of Missouri Press, 1975); Recital (Dolmen Press, 1975); Hone And Away; The Exile’s Recurring Nightmare; The […]
Eugene McCabe was born in Glasgow in July 1930 of Irish parents. His published plays for stage include King of the Castle (Dublin, The Gallery Press/Newark, Proscenium, 1978); and his one-act plays Pull Down a Horseman/Gale Day (Dublin, Gallery, 1979). His plays for TV include Roma (Dublin, Turoe & RTÉ, 1979); and his trilogy Victims, […]
Martin McDonagh was born in London in 1971 to expatriate Irish parents. His plays include The Beauty Queen of Leenane (The Abbey, Peacock Stage, Dublin, 1996 / London, Royal Court Theatre, 1997). The play is the first in his Connemara Trilogy, which also includes A Skull in Connemara (1997) and The Lonesome West (1997). His […]
Terry McDonagh was born in Cill Aodáin, Kiltimagh, Co Mayo in 1946. His plays include The Dark Side of a Dream; Anything for a Fiver; I wanted to bring you flowers (translated as Ich kann das alles erklären); Eternity Under Lucifer the First; and Children of the Whip. His poetry collections are The Road Out […]
John McGahern was born in Dublin in 1934, but moved to Leitrim as a child. His novels are The Barracks (London, Faber & Faber, 1963); The Dark (Faber & Faber, 1965); The Leavetaking (Faber & Faber, 1975) The Pornographer (Faber & Faber, 1980), Amongst Women (Faber & Faber, 1990); and That They May Face The […]
Frank McGuinness was born in Buncrana, Co Donegal, in 1953. His plays include The Factory Girls (1982); Baglady/Ladybag (1985); Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme (Dublin, The Abbey Theatre, 1985); Innocence (1986); Carthaginians (1988); Mary and Lizzie (Stratford-upon-Avon, Royal Shakespeare Theatre, 1989); The Bread Man (Dublin, The Gate Theatre, 1990); Someone Who’ll […]
Belinda McKeon was born in Longford in 1979. Her first novel is Solace (London, Picador/New York, Scribner, 2011), which won the 2011 Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book of the Year prize at the Irish Book Awards, and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize 2012. Her plays are Drapes ([part of a trail of short, site-specific new […]
Thomas McLaughlin was born in Belfast and studied acting at the Portland [Oregon] Conservatory Theatre. His stage plays include Cross-Country (co-author, New York, 1981); Let’s All Go Down to the Strand (Belfast, New Writers Theatre, and Dublin, Project Theatre, 1982); Evening (Belfast, Ulster Poly Theatre, 1983); The New Museum of Panic (co-author, New York, 1983); […]
Conor McPherson (var. MacPherson) was born in Dublin in 1970. His plays include Rum and Vodka (Dublin, City Arts Centre, 1994); This Lime Tree Bower (Dublin, Iomha Ildanach, The Crypt Art Centre, 1995) The Good Thief, St Nicholas (London, The Bush Theatre, 1997); The Weir (London, The Royal Court); Dublin Carol (The Royal Court, 2000); […]
Walter Macken was born on May 3rd, 1915, in Galway. Originally an actor, principally with the Tadhbhearc in Galway, and The Abbey Theatre, he played lead roles on Broadway in MJ Molloy‘s The King of Friday’s Men and his own play Home is the Hero. He also acted in films, notably in Brendan Behan’s The […]
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); […]
Heno Magee was born in Dublin in 1939. His plays include I’m Getting Out of This Kip (Dublin, The Peacock, Abbey Theatre, 1972); Hatchet (The Peacock, The Abbey Theatre, 1972); and Red Biddy (The Peacock, The Abbey Theatre, 1974). His books include Hatchet (Dublin, The Gallery Press/Newark, Proscenium, 1978) Both Hatchet and I’m Getting Out […]
Mary Manning (also known as Mary Manning Howe) was born in Dublin in 1905 and went to drama school in London when she was sixteen. After returning to Ireland she attended the Abbey Theatre drama school under Sarah Allgood, and acted in the Abbey and the Gate in the early 1930s. Her plays are Youth’s […]
Aidan Mathews (var. Aidan Carl Mathews) was born in 1956 in Dublin. His poetry collections include Windfalls (Dublin, The Dolmen Press, 1977); Minding Ruth (Loughcrew, The Gallery Press, 1983); and According to the Small Hours (London, Jonathan Cape, 1998). His plays are The Diamond Body (Project Theatre, Dubin); Entrance, Exit (The Peacock Theatre, Dublin); and […]
Paula Meehan was born in Dublin in 1955. Her poetry collections include Return and No Blame (Dublin, Beaver Row, 1984); Reading the Sky (Beaver Row, 1986); The Man Who Was Marked by Winter (Oldcastle, Co Meath, The Gallery Press, 1991 – reprinted 1992, 1994 and 1999), which was shortlisted for the Irish Times/Aer Lingus Irish […]
Gary Mitchell was born in Rathcoole, North Belfast in 1965. In 1990 his first radio play won a BBC Radio 4 Young Playwrights Festival Award, and in 1995 won the Stewart Parker Award. In 1998, In A Little World of Our Own won the Irish Times Theatre Award for best new play and was performed […]
M.J. Molloy was born in Co Galway in 1917. Nine of his plays premiered at the Abbey Theatre, one in the Gaeity Theatre, and one at the John Player Theatre, all in Dublin. Three plays were produced in London, three on Broadway, New York, and many were broadcast, televised and published. He was working on […]
George Augustus Moore was born on February 24, 1852 in County Mayo. His collections of stories include In Single Strictness (London, Heinemann, 1922/ New York, Boni & Liveright., 1922); Celibates, London (Walter Scott/ New York, Macmillan, 1895); and The Untilled Field (London, T Fisher Unwin, 1903/Philadelphia, Lippincott). An t-Ur Gort (Dublin, Sealy, Bryers and Walker, […]
Danny Morrison was born in Belfast 1953. His novels are West Belfast (Cork, Mercier Press,1989); On The Back Of The Swallow (Mercier Press, 1994); and The Wrong Man (Mercier Press, 1997). His non-fiction includes Then The Walls Came Down (Mercier Press, 1999); and Troubles (published in Germany under that title, and in Spain as El […]
Gina Moxley was born in Cork where she studied painting at the Crawford School of Art. Her plays are Danti-Dan (Dublin, The Project/London, Hampstead Theatre, 1994, Rough Magic Theatre Company); and Dog House, which was specially commissioned, along with Liz Lochhead’s Cuba, by the Royal National Theatre (UK) for the BT National Connections Scheme for […]
Jean Iris Murdoch was born at 59 Blessington Street in Dublin, in 1919. Following the Irish War of Independence, the family moved to Chiswick, near London. In the latter years of the Second World War, she helped with the UN Rehabilitation and Relief Association in Belgium and Austria, before returning to England where she resumed […]
Jimmy Murphy was born in Dublin. His stage plays include Brothers of the Brush (Dublin, The Peacock, Dublin Theatre Festival 1993), which was awarded best new Irish play; A Picture of Paradise (The Peacock, 1997); The Muesli Belt (Dublin, The Abbey Theatre, 2000); Aceldama (1998), and The Kings of the Kilburn High Road (Waterford, Red […]
Tom Murphy was born in Tuam, Co Galway, in 1935. His works have been performed and broadcast widely in Europe and the US. He has worked closely with the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, and the Druid Theatre Company, Galway. His plays are A Whistle in the Dark (London, Stratford East, The Theatre Royal, 1961);.The Orphans (Dublin, […]
Éilís Ní Dhuibhne was born in Dublin in 1954. Her novels are The Bray House (Dublin, Attic Press, 1990); Singles (Dublin, Attic Press, 1992); The Dancers Dancing (Belfast, The Blackstaff Press, 1999/London Headline Review, 2001),which was shortlisted for the 2000 Orange Prize; and Fox, Swallow, Scarecrow (The Blackstaff Press, 2007); and Dún an Airgid (Dublin, […]
Edna O’Brien was born in Co Clare. Her novels include The Country Girls (London, Hutchinson & Company 1960); The Lonely Girl (London, Jonathan Cape, 1962 – published in paperback as Girl With Green Eyes, London, Penguin Books, 1964); Girls in their Married Bliss (Jonathan Cape, 1963); August is a Wicked Month (1964); Casualties of Peace […]
Flann O’Brien was born Brian O’Nolan in County Tyrone, on 5 October 1911, and grew up in Dublin. He was a civil servant for eighteen years, but in the 1930s began writing a bi-lingual column for The Irish Times under the pseudonym Myles na Gopaleen (Myles of the Small Horses). He also wrote a column […]
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 […]
Conleth O’Connor was born in Co Kildare in 1947. His plays were produced in the 1970s by the Lantern Theatre, Dublin, including The Reincarnation of Mr Dogsbody; Two Letters; and Overtime. His novels are the unpublished Manus, and the unfinished Peregrine St John Corcoran. His poetry collections are Trinities (Dublin, Profile Press, 1976); The Judas […]
Joseph O’Connor image was born in Dublin in 1963. His novels are Cowboys and Indians (London, Sinclair-Stevenson, 1991), which was short listed for The Whitbread Prize; Desperadoes (London, Flamingo, 1993); The Salesman (London, Secker & Warburg, 1998); Inishowen (Secker & Warburg, 2000); Star of the Sea (Secker & Warburg, 2002/New York, Harcourt Books, 2003); Redemption […]
Tommy Frank O’Connor was born in Currow, Tralee, Co Kerry in 1944. His novel is The Poacher’s Apprentice (Dublin, Marino, 1997). His poems are collected as Attic Warpipes (Cork, Bradshaw Books, 2004); Loose Head (Tralee, Doghouse Books, 2004); and Meeting Mona Lisa (Doghouse Books, 2011). His work for the stage includes the pageant Breanainn, at […]
Ulick O’Connor was born in Dublin in 1929. His plays include The Dream Box (1972); The Dark Lovers (1975); The Emperor’s Envoy (1976); The Grand Inquisitor; Submarine; and Deirdre (Dublin 1977, New York 1980); Execution (1985); The Oval Machine (1986); A Trinity of Two (1988); Joycity (1989); Deux de la Trinite (translated by Ramond Gerome, […]
Kate O’Riordan was born in the West of Ireland. Her novels are Involved (1995), which was shortlisted for the Dillons First Fiction Prize, and has been adapted by the author for TV; The Boy in the Moon (London, Flamingo, 1997); The Angel in the House (London, Flamingo, 2000); The Memory Stones (London, Simon & Schuster, […]
James Stewart Parker was born in Belfast in 1941. While still in his teens, he contracted bone cancer and had a leg amputated. He was part of a group of young writers which included Seamus Heaney and Bernard MacLaverty in Queen’s University, Belfast. His stage plays include Spokesong (Dublin Theatre Festival, John Player Theatre, 1975); […]
Niall Quinn was born in Dublin in 1943. His novels are Brigitte (New York, Braziller Press, 1981); Voyovic (Dublin, Wolfhound Press, 1981); Rejection (Washington, Willow Springs Press, 1983); Stolen Air (Wolfhound Press, 1988; USA Dufour Editions, 1989); The Café Cong (Wolfhound Press, 1991); Welcome to Gomorrah (Wolfhound Press, 1995); and The Snake Oil Fellowship (US, […]
Billy Roche was born in Wexford in 1949. He was for many years a singer, fronting his own band, The Roach Band. Best known as a dramatist, he has published one novel, Tumbling Down (Dublin,Wolfhound Press, 1984); and a collection of stories, Tales from Rainwater Pond (Kilkenny, Pillar Press, 2006). His plays include The Wexford […]
Blanaid Salkeld was born in Chittagone, India (now Pakistan), where her father was a friend of Rabindranath Tagore, and grew up in Ireland. She returned to India with her husband in 1902, and spent a further six years there. On her husband’s death in 1909, she she returned to Ireland and joined the Abbey Theatre. […]
George Bernard Shaw was born in 1856 at 33 Synge Street, Dublin. His place of birth is now a museum in his honour. His novels include Immaturity (composed and serialized, 1879, published 1931, cf below); The Irrational Knot (serialized in Our Corner between April, 1885, and February, 1887.cf below); Love Among the Artists (serialized, 1887-1888, […]
Jim Sheridan was born in Dublin in 1949. He is best known as a film director but his early work was in the theatre. His plays are Journal of a Hole ([co-author Neil Jordan] Dublin, Project Arts Centre, 1971); Women at Work([co-author Peter Sheridan] Team Educational Company, 1976); Mobile Homes (Project Arts Centre, 1976); Where […]
Peter Sheridan was born in Dublin in 1952. His plays include Paint it Black (Project Theatre, 1971); No Entry (Dublin, Project Arts Centre, 1976); Women at Work([co-author Jim Sheridan] Team Educational Company, 1976); The Liberty Suit ([co-authorGerard Mannix Flynn ] Dublin, Olympia Theatre, 1977/published Dublin, Co-op Books, 1980); Emigrants (Clifden Labour Club, Blackpool, UK; The […]
James Simmons was born in Derry in 1933 and educated at Campbell College, Belfast, and at Leeds University. He taught in Northern Ireland and for three years in the sixties at Ahmadu Bellow University, Nigeria. On his return he lectured in drama and Anglo-Irish literature and the New University of Ulster, and founded and edited […]
Paul Smith was born in Dublin on October 4, either in 1920 or 1925. He lived abroad for many years, in Canada, where he worked in radio, the UK, Australia, and Sweden, and where he lectured in Uppsala University. In Ireland he worked as a costume maker and designer in the Abbey and Gate Theatres […]
Sydney Bernard Smith was born in Glasgow in 1936 and raised in Portstewart, Co Derry. His work has been broadcast on RTÉ, BBC and Channel 4 (UK), and staged in Ireland, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and in the US. His poetry collections include Girl With Violin (The Dolmen Press [Poetry Ireland Editions 3], Dublin […]
