 | This article'slead sectionmay be too short to adequatelysummarize the key points. Please consider expanding the lead toprovide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article.(October 2021) |
Roddy Doyle | |
|---|---|
 Doyle inc. 2006 | |
| Born | Roderick Doyle (1958-05-08)8 May 1958 (age 67) Dublin, Ireland |
| Occupation | Novelist, dramatist, short story writer, screenwriter, teacher |
| Alma mater | University College Dublin |
| Subject | Working-class Dublin |
| Notable works | The Barrytown Trilogy,Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha,The Woman Who Walked into Doors,A Star Called Henry |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
Roderick Doyle (born 8 May 1958)[1] is an Irish novelist, dramatist and screenwriter. He is the author of eleven novels for adults, eight books for children, seven plays and screenplays, and dozens of short stories. Several of his books have been made into films, beginning withThe Commitments in 1991. Doyle's work is set primarily in Ireland, especially working-classDublin, and is notable for its heavy use of dialogue written in slang andIrish English dialect. Doyle was awarded theBooker Prize in 1993 for his novelPaddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.
Doyle was born in Dublin, Ireland, and grew up inKilbarrack, in a middle-class family.[2] His mother, Ita (née Bolger) was a first cousin of the short story writerMaeve Brennan.[3]
In addition to teaching, Doyle, along with Seán Love,[4] established a creative writing centre, "Fighting Words", which opened in Dublin in January 2009. It was inspired by a visit to his friendDave Eggers'826 Valencia project inSan Francisco, California.[5] Doyle has also engaged in local causes, including signing a petition supporting journalistSuzanne Breen, who faced gaol for refusing to divulge her sources in court,[6] and joining a protest against an attempt byDublin City Council to construct 9 ft-high barriers which would interfere with one of his favourite views.[7][8][9][10]
In 1989, Doyle married Belinda Moller.[11] She is the granddaughter of former Irish PresidentErskine Childers.[12] The couple have three children; Rory, Jack and Kate.
Doyle is an atheist.[13]
Doyle attendedUniversity College Dublin, where he studied English and geography, and graduated with a BA degree in 1979.[14] He went on to complete a Higher Diploma in Education (HDipEd) in 1980. He spent several years as an English and geography teacher before becoming a full-time writer in 1993.[15]
Doyle's writing is marked by heavy use of dialogue between characters, with little description or exposition.[16] His work is largely set in Ireland, with a focus on the lives of working-class Dubliners. Themes range from domestic and personal concerns to larger questions of Irish history. His personal notes and workbooks reside at theNational Library of Ireland.[17]
Doyle's first three novels,The Commitments (1987),The Snapper (1990) andThe Van (1991) compriseThe Barrytown Trilogy, a trilogy centred on the Rabbitte family. All three novels were made into successful films.
The Commitments is about a group of Dublin teenagers, led by Jimmy Rabbitte Jr., who form a soul band in the tradition ofWilson Pickett. The novel was made into afilm in 1991.The Snapper, made into afilm in 1993, focuses on Jimmy's sister, Sharon, who becomes pregnant. She is determined to have the child but refuses to reveal the father's identity to her family. InThe Van, which was shortlisted for the 1991Booker Prize and made into afilm in 1996, Jimmy Sr. is laid off, as is his friend Bimbo; the two buy a usedfish and chips van and they go into business for themselves.
In 1993, Doyle publishedPaddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, which later won the 1993Booker Prize, and which showed the world as described, understood and misunderstood by a ten-year-old Dubliner living in 1968.
Doyle's next novel dealt with darker themes.The Woman Who Walked into Doors, published in 1996, is the story of a battered wife, Paula Spencer, who was introduced in his 1994 television seriesFamily, and is narrated by her. Despite her husband's increasingly violent behaviour, Paula defends him, using the classic excuse "I walked into a door" to explain her bruises. Ten years later, the protagonist returned inPaula Spencer, published in 2006.
Doyle's most recent trilogy of adult novels isThe Last Roundup series, which follows the adventures of protagonist Henry Smart through several decades.A Star Called Henry (published 1999) is the first book in the series, and tells the story of Henry Smart, an IRA volunteer and 1916 Easter Rebellion fighter, from his birth in Dublin to his adulthood when he becomes a father.Oh, Play That Thing! (2004) continues Henry's story in 1924 America, beginning on the Lower East Side ofManhattan, where he catches the attention of local mobsters by hiring kids to carry his sandwich boards. He also goes to Chicago where he becomes a business partner withLouis Armstrong. The title is taken from a phrase that is shouted in one of Armstrong's songs, "Dippermouth Blues".[citation needed] In the final novel in the trilogy,The Dead Republic (published 2010), Henry collaborates on writing the script for a Hollywood film. He returns to Ireland and is offered work as the caretaker in a school when circumstances lead to him re-establishing his link withthe IRA.
Doyle frequently posts short comic dialogues on hisFacebook page which are implied to be between two older men in a pub, often relating to current events in Ireland (such as the2015 marriage referendum[18]) and further afield. These developed into the novellaTwo Pints (2012). Other recent works areThe Guts (2013), which continues the story of the Rabbitte family from the Barrytown Trilogy, focusing on a 48-year-old Jimmy Rabbite and his diagnosis ofbowel cancer[19] andTwo More Pints (2014).
Doyle has also written many novels for children, including the "Rover Adventures" series,[20] which includesThe Giggler Treatment (2000),Rover Saves Christmas (2001), andThe Meanwhile Adventures (2004).
Other children's books includeWilderness (2007),Her Mother's Face (2008), andA Greyhound of a Girl (2011).
Doyle is also a prolific dramatist, writing four plays and two screenplays. His plays with the Passion Machine Theatre Company includeBrownbread (1987) andWar (1989), directed byPaul Mercier with set and costume design by Anne Gately. Later plays includeThe Woman Who Walked into Doors (2003); and a rewrite ofThe Playboy of the Western World (2007) with Bisi Adigun. This latter play was the subject of litigation about copyright which ended with theAbbey Theatre agreeing to pay Adigun €600,000.[21]
Screenplays include the television screenplay forFamily (1994), which was aBBC/RTÉserial and the forerunner of the 1996 novelThe Woman Who Walked into Doors. Doyle also authoredWhen Brendan Met Trudy (2000), which is a romance about a timid schoolteacher (Brendan) and a free-spirited thief (Trudy).
Doyle has written many short stories, several of which have been published inThe New Yorker; they have also been compiled in two collections.The Deportees and Other Stories was published in 2007, while the collectionBullfighting was published in 2011. Doyle's story "New Boy" wasadapted into a 2008Academy Award-nominated short film directed bySteph Green.[22]
Rory and Ita (2002) is a work of non-fiction about Doyle's parents, based on interviews with them.[2]
The Commitments was adapted by Doyle for a musical which began in the West End in 2013.[23]
Two Pints (2017) was produced by the Abbey Theatre initially in pubs and later in the theatre itself.[24]
In 2018, the Gate Theatre commissioned Doyle to write a stage adaptation ofThe Snapper. The show was directed by Róisín McBrinn and was revived in 2019.[25]
In the television seriesFather Ted, the characterFather Dougal McGuire's unusual sudden use of (mild) profanities (such as saying "I wouldn't know, Ted, you big bollocks!") is blamed on his having "been reading those Roddy Doyle books again".[32]
 |
| Title | Year | First published | Reprinted/collected | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Not Just For Christmas" | 1999 | Not Just For Christmas (1999) | Part of theOpen Door Series of novellas for adult literacy | |
| "The Slave"[33] | 2000 | Speaking with the Angel (2000) | Bullfighting (2011) | |
| "Recuperation" | 2003 | Doyle, Roddy (15 December 2003)."Recuperation".The New Yorker. | Bullfighting (2011) | |
| "The Joke" | 2004 | Bullfighting (2011) | ||
| "The Child"[34] | 2004 | |||
| "Mad Weekend" | 2006 | Mad Weekend (2006) | Part of theOpen Door Series of novellas for adult literacy | |
| "The Photograph" | 2006 | Bullfighting (2011) | ||
| "Teaching"[35] | 2006 | Bullfighting (2011) | ||
| "The Dog"[36] | 2007 | Bullfighting (2011) | ||
| "Vincent" | 2007 | "Vincent".Click. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books. 2007. | ||
| "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner" | 2007 | The Deportees and Other Stories (2007) | Retelling of the 1967 American film,Guess Who's Coming to Dinner | |
| "The Deportees" | 2007 | The Deportees and Other Stories (2007) | ||
| "New Boy" | 2007 | The Deportees and Other Stories (2007) | Adapted into 2007 short film,New Boy (film) | |
| "57% Irish" | 2007 | The Deportees and Other Stories (2007) | ||
| "Black Hoodie" | 2007 | The Deportees and Other Stories (2007) | ||
| "The Pram" | 2007 | The Deportees and Other Stories (2007) | ||
| "Home To Harlem" | 2007 | The Deportees and Other Stories (2007) | ||
| "I Understand" | 2007 | The Deportees and Other Stories (2007) | ||
| "Bullfighting"[37] | 2008 | Bullfighting (2011) | ||
| "The Bandstand"[38] | 2009 | |||
| "Sleep"[39] | 2009 | Bullfighting (2011) | ||
| "Blood" | 2009 | Bullfighting (2011) | ||
| "Animals" | 2009 | Bullfighting (2011) | ||
| "Ash" | 2010 | Doyle, Roddy (24 May 2010)."Ash".The New Yorker. Vol. 86, no. 14. pp. 64–67. | Bullfighting (2011) | |
| "Funerals" | 2010 | Bullfighting (2011) | ||
| "The Plate" | 2010 | Bullfighting (2011) | ||
| "Brilliant"[40] | 2011 | |||
| "How To Be A Man" | 2013 | The Book Of Men: Eighty Writers On How To Be A Man (2013) | ||
| "Box Sets" | 2014 | Doyle, Roddy (14 April 2014)."Box sets".The New Yorker. Vol. 90, no. 8. pp. 62–66. | Life Without Children (2021) | |
| "Dead Man Talking" | 2015 | Dead Man Talking (2015) | Part of theQuick Reads Initiative | |
| "The Curfew" | 2019 | Doyle, Roddy (2 December 2019)."The Curfew".The New Yorker. Vol. 95, no. 38. pp. 54–58. | Life Without Children (2021) | |
| "Life Without Children" | 2020 | Life Without Children (2021) | ||
| "Nurse" | 2020 | Life Without Children (2021) | ||
| "Gone" | 2021 | Life Without Children (2021) | ||
| "Masks" | 2021 | Life Without Children (2021) | ||
| "The Charger" | 2021 | Life Without Children (2021) | ||
| "Worms" | 2021 | Life Without Children (2021) | ||
| "The Funeral" | 2021 | Life Without Children (2021) | ||
| "The Five Lamps" | 2021 | Life Without Children (2021) | ||
| "The Buggy" | 2024 | Doyle, Roddy (16 June 2024)."The Buggy".The New Yorker. |
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
