Roscommon Writers
Bithia Mary Croker
Born at Kilgefin c.1850, her books enjoyed world-wide readership and popularity, especially in the 1930s. In 1877 she and her husband moved to India, eventually settling in England. She published 52 works of fiction, mostly novels, several short stories and one play.
Percy French
One of Ireland’s most loved songwriters and entertainers, he was born William Percy French at Clooneyquin in 1854. Songs such as The Mountains of Mourne and Come Back Paddy Reilly to Ballyjamesduff are timeless classics. He was also an excellent watercolourist.
Kieran Furey
Born in Curraghroe in 1953. Widely-travelled, his foreign experiences enrich his writing. A multi-award winner, his poetry collection, The History House, based on Strokestown House and the famine captures the sensibilities of the Irish peasantry in a way that is seldom achieved in modern writing.
Alice Lyons
She was born in New Jersey and grew up in the United States. She came to Cootehall in 1998. A poet and visual artist, her first collection of poems, Speck, won the Patrick Kavanagh Award for Poetry in 2002. In 2004 she was awarded the inaugural Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary. Her collection, Staircase Poems, which relates to The Dock in Carrick-on-Shannon, was published in 2006.
Tomás Láidir Mac Coisdealbha
17th century. He wrote one of the great Irish love songs, Úna Bhán. She died heart-broken and was buried on Trinity Island on Lough Key. On his death, his request to be buried beside her was granted; it is said that a tree above his grave inter-twined with a tree above hers.
Charlotte Eccles O’Connor
Born at Ballinagard outside Roscommon town in 1863, her best known book was The Rejuvenation of Miss Semaphore. She was a prominent journalist, notably with The New York Herald. Her journalism generally related to social issues e.g. the condition of the poor, the education of women.
Grace Rhys
She was born Grace Little in 1865 in Boyle, and spent her childhood there. Married to Ernest Percival Rhys, she spent most of her adulthood at the centre of literary life in London. She wrote ten novels in her lifetime, and also published songbooks and poetry for children. She died in 1929.
Dermot Somers
Novelist, short-story writer, broadcaster, mountaineer; he was born at Tremane in 1947. An award-winning writer in both Irish and English, he has also written and presented a number of programmes for RTE and TG4, television and radio. His unique range of experiences ensures that he is in constant demand as a speaker around the country.
Edward Synge
His father was Archbishop of Tuam. He was born in Cork in 1691. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, he obtained a Doctorate of Divinity in 1728. Synge was Bishop of Elphin from 1740 to 1762. A series of letters written by him to his daughter, Alicia, over the years 1746 to 1752 were collected in a book by Marie-Louise Legg, published in 1996.
David Thomson
Writer, BBC producer David Thomson was born in India in 1914 to Scottish parents. While studying at Lincoln College, Oxford, Thomson took up a tutoring job with the Kirkwood family outside Carrick on Shannon; a position he held for ten years. His memoir of these years, Woodbrook, was published in 1974.
Gerry Boland
Poet and author born in Rathmines, Dublin; he moved to County Roscommon in 1999. His first collection of poems, Watching Clouds, was published by Doghouse Books in 2011. At the time of writing he is Roscommon’s writer-in residence.
Patrick Chapman
He was born in Roscommon in 1968 and grew up in Boyle. He has published six collections of poems of which A Promiscuity of Spines – New and Selected Poems (2012) is the most recent. Twice nominated for the Sunday Tribune Hennessy Awards; in 2010 he was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. The award-winning short film Burning The Bed was based on his story of the same title.
Jane Clarke
She was born in Roscommon and grew up in Fuerty. Having previously won the Listowel Writers Week and twice been runner-up in the Fish Poetry Prize, she is short-listed for the Hennessy Literary Award 2013. Jane is currently living near Glenmalure, Co. Wicklow and is compiling her first collection of poetry.
Margaret Cousins
Born Margaret (Gretta) Gillespie 1878 in Boyle. She went on to champion women’s rights, not just in Ireland but also in India. She became the first female magistrate in that country and was recognized by Nehru’s government for her contribution to the state. Among her books are The Awakening of Asian Womanhood and Indian Womanhood Today.
Ann Joyce
Born in Keelogues, Co. Mayo, she moved to Boyle in 1981 where she lived for eleven years. While there she was a founding member of the Moylurg Writers group. North Roscommon has continued to inspire her writing as evidenced by the title of her 2005 chapbook, Threads from Maeve's Mantle, and Meadbh – The Crimson Path (2008), a collaboration with musician, John Carty.
Brian Leyden
Novelist and short story writer, he won the Francis McManus Short Story Award in 1988 and the Irelands Own short story competition the following year. In 1991 an RTE documentary, ‘No Meadows in Manhatten’, written by him won a Jacobs Award. The Home Place (2002) was a best-selling memoir about his childhood years in Arigna.
Brian O’Doherty
Internationally acclaimed artist, art critic and novelist. He was born in Ballaghaderreen in 1928. In 1957 he emigrated to the United States where he became a highly influential figure in the art world. His second novel The Deposition of Father McGreevy was nominated for a Booker Prize in 2000.
Seán Ó’Neachtáin
Noted scholar and a major literary figure of his day, he was born at Clonellan, Drum between 1640 and 1650 and later lived at Rahara. His adult life was lived in different parts of Leinster. Today we have 5,000 lines of Gaelic prose and poetry written by him. He died in 1729.
Thomas Heazle Parke
Born in 1857 at Kilmore. He has the distinction of being the first Irishman to cross the African continent; he achieved this as medical officer to the expedition led by Henry Morten Stanley in 1887. He is buried at Drumsna and commerated by a bronze statue standing outside the Natural History Museum, Dublin.
Mary Turley-McGrath
Born in Roscommon, she grew up in Mount Talbot. A previous winner of the Francis Ledwidge Award and the Bridget Winter Award, her collection, New Grass Under Snow, was published in 2003. Now based in Letterkenny, she was a founder member of Errigal Writers there.
John Waters
He was born in Castlerea in 1955. One of Ireland’s best known and most outspoken journalists, he has been a columnist with the Irish Times since January 1991. His books include, among others, Jiving at the Crossroad, An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Modern Ireland, The Politburo Has Decided That You Are Unwell, Lapsed Agnostic. He is also a playwright and has worked extensively on radio and television.
Oliver Goldsmith
One of the great Irish writers, he was born in 1728 at Ardnagowna, Elphin though this is disputed, with Pallas, Ballymahon. His works The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), The Good-natured Man (1768), The Deserted Village (1770) and She Stoops To Conquer (1773) all brought acclaim and cemented his literary reputation worldwide.
Hannah Greally
She was born at Pearse St, Athlone in 1925. She came to national prominence in 1971 when her first book was published. Bird’s Nest Soup, the heart-rending account of her institutionalisation in St Loman’s Psychiatric Hospital, Mullingar, has retained its popularity for over forty years. She eventually settled at Coolteigue outside Roscommon town.
Kevin Hora
Born in Manchester, he moved to County Roscommon as a child. He has had several short stories broadcast on Mid-West Radio, and was shortlisted for the Over the Edge New Writer of the Year in 2012. Currently writing two books on public relations, he is also putting together his first collection of short stories.
Douglas Hyde
Ireland’s first President was born at Castlerea in 1860, and later lived in Frenchpark. He was co-founder of the Gaelic League but retired as its president in 1915. He compiled and published several collections of Irish verse and folk tales, most notably Love Songs of Connacht. The Douglas Hyde Interpretative Centre is located in the church in Tibohine, Frenchpark.
Turlough O’Carolan
Born in 1670, near Nobber, County Meath. His family moved to Ballyfarnon when Turlough was 14 years old. In 1688, he began to learn the harp under Mrs Mac Dermott Roe’s guidance; she gave him his first harp. O’Carolan’s music has retained its popularity down to the present day. He is buried in Kilronan cemetery between Keadue and Ballyfarnon.
M.F. Ó’Conchúir
Born in Ennistymon in 1928, he came to Roscommon town as a Christian Brother in 1964 and remained there until 1991. A prolific poet in the Irish language, his collections include Gealadh Báistí (1974), Úna Bhán (1994) and Cuisne Fómhair (1998) among others. Devoted to Irish culture, he was an occasional broadcaster on Radio Na Gaeltachta.
Michael O'Dea
Teacher and poet, born and grew up in Roscommon town. He has published two poetry collections, Sunfire and Turn Your Head. In 2005 a chapbook, Felos ainda serra, was published by Amastra-N-Galar in Galicia. He currently teaches in Rathmines, Dublin, where he is an ardent community activist.
John McGahern
One of Ireland’s greatest writers; he was born in Dublin in 1934 and lived just outside Ballinamore, Co Leitrim until the death of his mother in 1945. It was then he and his siblings moved to the garda barracks in Cootehall, now immortalised in his first novel, The Barracks, published in 1963. His masterpiece, Amongst Women, was nominated for the Booker Award in 1990.
Arthur Murphy
Born at Clooneyquin in 1727, he enjoyed great success as a dramatist in the second half of the eighteenth century and was a much sought-after guest in the society houses of London. His biographical work includes the highly successful Henry Fielding's Works (1762), Essay on the Life and Genius of Samuel Johnson (1792); Life of David Garrick (1801).
Sir William Robert Wills Wilde
He was born at Kilkeevan, Castlerea in 1815 and received his early education at the Elphin Diocesan School in Elphin. Internationally acclaimed for his work as a surgeon, he received his knighthood in 1864. He has made valuable contributions in the areas of medicine, history, statistics, archaeology, mythology, literature and travel literature. He died in 1876, and is buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery in Dublin.