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The Arts Council Playography Na Gaeilge

People

James Plunkett

1920 - 2003

Born in Sandymount, Dublin, on 21 May 1920, raised in Upper Pembroke Street, and educated at the CBS, Synge Street, and Municipal School of Music, Camden Street. He became a clerk in the Dublin Gas Co in 1937, where he joined a trade union and was appointed branch secretary working under Jim Larkin. Amongst his contributions to The Bell magazine was Working Class, a story that provided the nucleus of Strumpet City. He visited the Soviet Union in 1955, was attacked by the Catholic Standard, and was forced to resign from the union. His radio plays include Dublin Fusilier (March 1952), Mercy (June 1953), Homecoming (April 1954), Farewell Harper (1956) and Big Jim (1955), which was expanded as The Risen People (Abbey, September 1958). Plunkett's epic novel about Dublin, Strumpet City, was published in 1969. Farewell Companions, based on his own life, was published in 1977. He died in 2003.

Playwriting Credits

Play Title Playwright
The Risen People James Plunkett