Martin McDonagh is an English-born Irish playwright and screenwriter best known for The Leenane Trilogy,The Lieutenant of Inishmore and the Oscar-nominated filmIn Bruges.

The Leenane Trilogy consists ofThe Beauty Queen of Leenane,A Skull in Connemara, andThe Lonesome West. The Aran Islands Trilogy consists ofThe Cripple of Inishmaan,The Lieutenant of Inishmore, and the unproducedThe Banshees of Inisheer. Other plays includeThe Pillowman andA Behanding in Spokane. BeforeIn Bruges, McDonagh also wrote and directed the short filmSix Shooter, for which he received an Oscar for Best Short Film. His current project is the filmSeven Psychopaths, which will be released in fall 2012.

His works are generallyviolentblack comedies that focus ondysfunctional families,hired killers, and/or a uniquely twisted form ofSmall Town Boredom in County Galway (and surrounding islands) duringThe Troubles.

• Black Comedy
• Bloody Hilarious
• Brick Joke: the apparent feud between the unseen owners of a cat and a goose; Helen being hired to dispose of said animals;the owners not seeming to care about the feud anymore.
• Bury Your Disabled: deconstructed inCripple
• Cluster F-Bomb
• Covered in Gunge: Bartley inCripple gets at least three eggs cracked over his head every performance
• Creator Breakdown: inThe Pillowman
• Disabled Character, Disabled Actor: played with and discussed inCripple, although the actor playing Billy is almost always able-bodied.
• The Documentary: "Man of Aran," a real 1934 (docudrama) film.
• Everything's Even Worse with Sharks: A shark is hunted in "Man of Aran" and is apparently how Johnnypateenmike's father died. The widow turns the other cheek. To a shark!
• Evil Matriarch: Mag is the first type inBeauty Queen.
• Faking the Dead: McDonagh LOVES this and its various subtropes. In the Aran Islands plays, it's a specificHomage toThe Playboy of the Western World.
• Gorn: Between the blood, gore, and kitty brain matter inLieutenant; hot oil inBeauty Queen; flying bone chips inA Skull in Connemara; andraw eggs inCripple, it seems like McDonagh is off his game if he hasn't created a hideous mess for stage management to clean up every night.
• Gossipy Hens: rare male example in Johnnypateenmike, who is barters tidbits of information for goods from local merchants.
• Honorary Aunts: Kate and Eileen to Billy.
• Incurable Cough of Death:Double Subversion inCripple.
• Knowledge Broker: Johnnypateenmike
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: "Better to cast a normal fella who can act crippled, than a crippled fella who can't act at all."
• Maybe Ever After: Billy and Slippy Helen inCripple.Fridge Brilliance kicks in when you realize siblings Mairead and Davy inLieutenant share a last name with Billy Claven (established to have no living relatives) and many personality traits with Helen and her brother Bartley.That is, if Billy lives much longer after the play.
• Mommy Issues: Maureen inBeauty Queen-- andhow!
• Never Live It Down:In-Universe: Auntie Katie, who talks tostones.
• Oireland /N-Word Privileges: YMMV; McDonagh has received criticism for his depiction of the Irish, being born and raised in England himself.
• Only Sane Man: He's an alcoholic mess, but Father Welsh in The Leenane Trilogy is pretty much the only one in the village tonever kill anyone.
• The Place: All the plays in the Leenane and Aran Islands Trilogies feature a place-name or direction in their titles.A Behanding in Spokane andIn Bruges also qualify.
• Repetitive Name: Katurian K Katurian inThe Pillowman.
• Rule of Funny: "Let's play England and Ireland!"*egg to the head*
• Running Gag: InCripple: "Ireland can't be so bad ifAmerican, French, colored fellows,sharks want to move here!"
• Seinfeldian Conversation
• Sorry, Billy, But You Just Don't Have Legs
• Strange Syntax Speaker: Most everyone, especially older characters. It's essentially what you would get if you crossed Hiberno-English withMamet Speak. Parodied "How Are Things In Irish Drama?", theForbidden Broadway take onBeauty Queen:

Mag: It's an old crone I'm getting to be, Maureen, an old crone... Maureen: Stop reversing your syntax, you hateful cow! You'd try the patience of a saint!

• The X of Y: Several titles

• Creator
• Playwrights
• Screenwriters
• Directors
• Martin McDonagh