Playwright, born in Dublin, Ireland. From an impoverished Protestant family, he suffered from poor health during his boyhood. Trachoma permanently damaged his eyesight and interrupted his education. During years of physical hardship in labouring work, he became involved with the Irish Citizen Army, but resigned in 1914 in protest against its anti-Union attitudes. His first publication was a broadside, The Story of Thomas Ashe (1917), about a friend in the Citizen Army who died on hunger strike, but he was already interested in the work of the Abbey Theatre. After rejecting at least three of his plays, the Abbey staged The Shadow of a Gunman (1923) and Juno and the Paycock (1924). Later he became more experimental and impressionistic. His anti-war drama The Plough and the Stars (1926) provoked a full-scale riot, and caused him to leave Ireland for good. Other works include The Silver Tassie (1929), Cockadoodle Dandy (1949), and The Bishop’s Bonfire (1955). He also wrote essays, such as The Flying Wasp (1936), and was awarded the Hawthornden Prize in 1926.