Damian Smyth was born in Downpatrick, Co Down, in 1962. His poetry collections are Downpatrick Races (Belfast, Lagan Press, 2000); The Down Recorder (Belfast, Lagan Press, 2004); Lamentations (Belfast, Lagan Press, 2010); Market Street (Belfast, Lagan Press, 2010); Apparitions: A Hurricane (Derby, Templar Poetry, booklet, 2012); and Mesopotamia (Derby, Templar Poetry, 2014). Recent anthologies in […]
Francis Stuart was born in Australia in 1902. His plays include Men Crowd me Round (1933); and Strange Guest (1940). His short prose was collected in States of Mind (Dublin,Raven Arts Press, 1983). His poetry includes We Have Kept the Faith (Dublin, Oak,1933), reprinted by The Raven Arts Press; Night Pilot (Raven Arts Press, 1988); […]
John Millington Synge was born in 1871 in Rathfarnham, Dublin. He studied music in Germany and lived in Paris, where he wrote literary criticism, and where he met WB Yeats, who famously persuaded him to live in the Aran Islands before returning to Dublin. He spent five summers there, and perfected his Irish. He also […]
Neville Thompson was born in Ballyfermot, Dublin, in 1961. His novels include loves Johnser OK? (Dublin, Poolbeg 1997); Two Birds/One Stoned (Dublin: Poolbeg 1999); Have Ye No Homes to Go To? (Poolebeg, 1999); Mama’s Boys (Mullingar, Killynon House Books, 2006); and A Simple Twist of Fate (Killynon House Books, 2007). His plays include Sex, Lies […]
William Trevor (birth name William Trevor Cox) was born in Mitchelstown Co Cork in 1928. His novels include The Old Boys (London, The Bodley Head, 1964), which won The Hawthornden Prize; The Boarding House (The Bodley Head, 1965); The Love Department (The Bodley Head, 1966); Mrs Eckdorf in O’Neills Hotel (The Bodley Head, 1969); Miss […]
Nesta Tuomey was born in Dublin. Her novels are Up Up and Away (Cork, Emperor Publishing, 1995); and Like One Of The Family (Dingle, Mount Eagle, 1999). Her plays, documentaries and short stories have been broadcast by BBC and RTÉ and her one-act play Whose Baby won the O.Z. Whitehead Play Competition in 1996. She […]
Una Troy was born in 1910 in Fermoy, Co Cork. She began her writing career under the name of Elizabeth Connor, and her novels from this period are Mount Prospect (London, Methuen, 1936/US, No House of Peace, 1937), which was banned in Ireland; and Dead Star’s Light (Methuen, 1938). In 1940 she adapted Mount Prospect […]
Katharine Tynan was born at Whitehall, Clondalkin, Co. Dublin in 1861. She published many poetry collections include Louise de la Valliere and Other Poems (London, Kegan, Paul Trench, & Co., 1885); Shamrocks (Kegan, Paul Trench, & Co., 1887); Ballads & Lyrics (Keegan, Paul, 1891); New Poems (London, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1911); The Flower of Peace: […]
Mervyn Wall was born in Dublin in 1908. His main works include the novels The Unfortunate Fursey (London, the Pilot Press, 1946/New York, Crown Publishers, 1947); The Return of Fursey (London, The Pilot Press, 1948); Leaves for the Burning (London, Methuen, 1952/New York, Devin-Adair, 1952); No Trophies Raise (Metheun, 1956); Hermitage (Dublin, The Wolfhound Press, […]
Oscar Wilde was born in Westland Row, Dublin on October 16th, 1854 to an eminent surgeon, William Wilde and the famous nationalist poet, Lady Jane Wilde, known as Speranza (her Selected Poems were published in Dublin in 1900). He settled in London in 1879. In 1882 he embarked on a lecture tour of the United […]
Niall Williams was born in Dublin in 1958. His novels are Four Letters of Love (London, Picador, 1997); As It Is In Heaven (Picador, 1999), short listed for the Irish Times Literature Prize; The Fall of Light (Picador, 2001); Boy in the World (London, Harpur Collins, 2007); John (London/New York, Bloomsbury, 2008); and History of […]
Vincent Woods was born in Co. Leitrim in 1960. His plays include John Hughdy/Tom John (Galway, Druid Theatre Company, 1991); At the Black Pig’s Dyke (Druid Theatre Company, 1992); Song of the Yellow Bittern (Druid Theatre Company, 1994); Fontamara (adaptation from the novel by Ignazio Silone, Collins Barracks, Dublin, Vesuvius Theatre Company, 1998); and A […]
William Butler Yeats was born in Dublin on June 13, 1865. With Lady Gregory and others, he founded the Irish Literary Theatre, from which developed the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in 1896. His poetry includes Mosada (Dublin, Sealy, Bryers & Walker, 1886); The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems (London, Kegan Paul, 1889) Crossways, 1889; The […]
