Over The Backyard Wall

by Thomas Kilroy

From this mosaic of memory a self-portrait emerges that takes its author, a child of Hitler’s war, from his upbringing in Callan to the threshold of his career as one of Ireland’s most distinguished playwrights. The frontier town of Callan was a crucible of Ireland’s War of Independence. Thomas Kilroy’s pro-Treaty father – a police sergeant who found solace in greyhounds and gambling – and his anti-Treaty mother were emblems of divided loyalty in a newly independent country.

Kilroy’s journey of self-discovery began by way of St Kieran’s College, Kilkenny, where he encountered Anew McMaster staging his fit-up Hamlet, and University College Dublin, where he became auditor of the English Literature Society. During the 1960s he taught at Stratford College (the Dublin Jewish School) and in the USA, at the University of Notre Dame and Vanderbilt University. Back in Dublin as a junior lecturer at UCD in 1967 he won a BBC Northern Ireland play competition, setting the stage for his remarkable work and a renaissance of new drama in Dublin alongside Brian Friel, Tom Murphy and Hugh Leonard.

230 pages, Paperback

Published November 8, 2018

Reviews

[Michael Martin]

Fascinating memoir about a writer's development, growing up in the same town and at about the same time as my father. The names of some characters familiar to me, as well as the local response to World War II. Also the travelling theatre companies like Anew McMaster, whose Julius Caesar costume my father borrowed when the wardrobe was stored at his family pub, to win the local fancy dress contest.

The latter part of the book includes literary figures like Benedict Kiely. I liked the anecdote of the university student introducing Brian O'Nolan (Flann O'Brien) and Patrick Kavanagh to a literary society...but I won't include a spoiler here.

[Peter P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. Just loved it. Beautifully written and very resonant for this Irishman.

[Garret Cahill · Rating 4 out of 5]

A most interesting memoir of a significant, and under-rated Irish playwright. My only real criticism is that the narrative stops just as his writing career takes off - a sequel please Mr Kilroy ?

[Nick McLaren · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little nugget if his fiction in there that was enough for me to be interested in reading more Kilroy even though these memories weren’t for me.