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.