Who is your favourite Irish writer?

With St Patrick’s day around the corner, it is worth thinking about who is your favourite Irish novelist, playwright, poet or director.

Here are a few suggestions:

Novelists

  • James Joyce (1882-1941)
  • John McGahern (1934-2006)
  • Brian Moore (1921-1999)
  • Jennifer Johnston (b. 1930)
  • Bram Stoker (1847-1912)
  • Roddy Doyle (b. 1958)
  • Emma Donoghue (b. 1969)
  • John Boyne (b.1971)
  • Maeve Binchy (b. 1940)
  • Cecelia Ahern (b. 1981)

Playwrights

  • Brian Friel (b. 1929)
  • John B. Keane (1928-2002)
  • Sean O’Casey (1880-1964)
  • John Millington Synge (1871-1909)
  • George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
  • Oscar Wilde (1845-1900)
  • Hugh Leonard (1926-2009)
  • Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816)
  • Samuel Beckett (1906-1989)

Poets

  • Seamus Heaney (b.1939)
  • Eavan Boland (b. 1944)
  • Patrick Kavanagh (1904-1967)
  • Thomas Kinsella (b. 1928)
  • Austin Clarke (1896-1974)
  • William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
  • Francis Ledwidge (1887-1917)
  • Michael Longley (b. 1939)
  • Derek Mahon (b. 1941)
  • John Montague (b. 1929)

Directors

  • Neil Jordan (b. 1950)
  • Damien O’Donnell (b. 1967)
  • Jim Sheridan (b. 1949)
  • Gerry Stembridge (b. 1958)
  • Kenneth Branagh (b. 1960)
  • Rex Ingram (1892-1950)

Of course this list is not exhaustive. Feel free to mention any other writer and tell us what novel, play, poem or film you liked and why.

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