T.C. Murray, Dramatist: Voice of the Rural Ireland

Drawing on archives of libraries in Dublin, New York City and Boston, DeGiacomo assesses T.C. Murray’s contribution to the Irish dramatic movement. One of the
Cork Realists
of the Abbey Theatre, Murray wrote 17 plays in one, two or three acts. A prominent national teacher and a seemingly apolitical playwright in the Irish Literary Revival, Murray expressed nationalistic aspirations in his peasant tragedies. His characters’ drive for self-determination and their religious consciousness mark Murray’s dramatic landscape. Murray reveals his life in voluminous correspondence with friends, family members and the glitterati of Dublin. A Roman Catholic, Murray tells his
outsider
story of the Abbey Theatre, ruled by members of the Protestant, Anglo-Irish ascendancy. W.B. Yeats, Lady Gregory and Lennox Robinson fill his world, as do later figures like Ernest Blythe. Murray’s association with the amateur dramatic societies reveals yet another dimension of his commitment to Irish drama. This text, largely a work of theatre history, spans Murray’s life and career from 1878 to 1959, and highlights Murray’s plays on Abbey tours of America from 1911 to 1935.