IRELAND’S cultural community has paid tribute following the death of one of the nation’s most renowned playwrights Thomas Kilroy.
The Kilkenny-born writer died on December 7, aged 89.
President Michael D Higgins led the tributes following his death.
“Thomas will be remembered as one of the most significant of a generation of playwrights that included Brian Friel, Tom Murphy and so many others,” he said.
“It was that generation who modernised Irish theatre through his work with the Abbey Theatre, and as a ground-breaking founder with visionaries such as Stephen Rea, of Field Day Theatre Company.”
A leading figure among Ireland’s creative sector, Kilroy’s ground-breaking plays included The Death and Resurrection of Mr. Roche, The O’Neill, Double Cross and The Shape of Metal.
“Thomas Kilroy’s plays, both in his original work and in his adaptations, were unafraid to cross boundaries, while examining social issues, which would not have been widely considered for audiences in Irish theatre previously,” President Higgins said.
“An example perhaps is The Death and Resurrection of Mr. Roche one of the Irish plays to have a gay central character,” he added.
“In his later work and adaptations, his paralleling of the decline of the Irish landed class with the Russian novel and work such as that of Chekhov was a particularly insightful contribution.”
Playwright Thomas Kilroy pictured after being presented with the 2008 Irish PEN AwardKilroy, who was born in Callan and went on to study at University College Dublin, also wrote for television and film and his novel The Big Chapel was nominated for the Booker Prize in 1971.
In his early career the writer, who lived in Mayo, was play editor at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin.
In the 1980s he sat on the board of Field Day Theatre Company, which was founded by Brian Friel and Stephen Rea in 1980, and was the director of its touring company.
In 1978 Kilroy, who lived in Mayo, was appointed Professor of English at University College Galway, a post he resigned from in 1989 to concentrate on his writing.
Well respected among his peers on the national and international arts scene, Kilroy was a member of the Irish Academy of Letters, the Royal Society of Letters and Aosdána - an Irish academy which “honours artists whose work has made an outstanding contribution to the creative arts in Ireland”.
Following his death, Professor Kevin Rafter, Chair of Ireland’s Arts Council, said: “The passing of Thomas Kilroy will be keenly felt by theatre and literature lovers worldwide.
“He was one of the foremost theatre artists this country has ever produced.”
He added: “He was known for his searing depictions of Irish society and for revealing uncomfortable truths through luminous, beautiful writing.
“His was a very large canvas which encompassed grand historical narrative from both Ireland and overseas.”
Among the awards Kilroy received over the years are the Guardian Fiction Prize, the Heinemann Award for Literature, the AIB Literary Prize and an Irish PEN Award.
His funeral took place at Shannon Crematorium on Sunday, December 10.
