Neil Donnelly

Neil Donnelly (born 1946) is an Irish playwright and poet. He is a member of Aosdána, an elite association of Irish artists.

Early life

Donnelly was born in 1946 in Tullamore, County Offaly.

Career

In the 1970s Donnelly founded "Wheels," a theatre in education company that toured Great Britain. Donnelly has written over 20 plays for stage and radio. He won the Harvey's Irish Theatre Award for Best Play in 1981 was the Abbey Theatre's writer-in-association in 1994. He has also held writer-in-residence posts in County Mayo (1993) and County Kildare (1999). Several of his works depict the Irish diaspora in England. In 2019 he directed a documentary about Aidan Higgins.

Personal life

Donnelly lives in County Kildare.

Works

Stage

• The Station Master (1974)
• Upstarts (1980)
• The Silver Dollar Boys (1981)
• Flying Home (1983)
• Chalk Farm Blues (1984)
• Boys of Summer (1985)
• Blindfold (1986)
• Goodbye Carraroe (1989)
• The Reel McCoy (1989)
• The Duty Master (1995)
• Four is a Magic Number (1995)
• Butterfly (2005)
• Invitation to a Poisoning (2010)

Radio

• Rotunda Blue (1983)
• The Loop (1987)
• Fire (1998)
• King of the Blues (1998)
• The Darkest Hour (1999)

Poetry

• Tullamore Train (2012)

Novel

• Sister Caravaggio (2014), collaborative novel with Peter Cunningham, Mary O'Donnell and others

Documentary film

• Where Would You Like The Bullet? (2019)

References