Roddy Doyle

Roddy Doyle
Born	(1958-05-08) 8 May 1958 (age 53) Dalkey, Dublin, Ireland
Occupation	Novelist, dramatist, short story writer, screenwriter, teacher
Nationality	Irish
Alma mater	University College Dublin (UCD)
Subjects	Working-class Dublin
Notable work(s)	The Barrytown Trilogy, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, The Woman Who Walked into Doors, The Giggler Treatment, A Star Called Henry

Roddy Doyle (Irish: Ruaidhrí Ó Dúill; born 8 May 1958 in Dublin) is an Irish novelist, dramatist and screenwriter. Several of his books have been made into successful films, beginning with The Commitments in 1991. He was awarded the Booker Prize in 1993.

Doyle grew up in Kilbarrack, Dublin. His mother, Ita Bolger Doyle, was first cousin of the short story writer Maeve Brennan.^[1] He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from University College Dublin. He spent several years as an English and geography teacher before becoming a full-time writer in 1993.^[2]

He established a creative writing centre, "Fighting Words", which opened in Dublin in January 2009. It was inspired by a visit to his friend Dave Eggers' 826 Valencia project in San Francisco.^[3] His personal notes and work books reside at the National Library of Ireland.^[4]

Personal life

He is an atheist.^[5] He signed a petition supporting journalist Suzanne Breen, who faced gaol for refusing to divulge her sources in court.^[6] He joined thousands of angry people from Clontarf to protest against an attempt by Dublin City Council to construct 9ft-high barriers which would interfere with one of his favourite views.^{[7][8][9][10]}

In popular culture

In the television series Father Ted, the character Father Dougal Maguire's unusual sudden use of (mild) profanities is blamed on his having "been reading those Roddy Doyle books again."

Bibliography

Novels

• The Barrytown Trilogy:
  • The Commitments (1987, 1991 film) — A group of Dublin teenagers, led by Jimmy Rabbitte Jr., decide to form a soul band in the tradition of Wilson Pickett.
  • The Snapper (1990, 1993 film) — Jimmy's sister, Sharon, becomes pregnant. She is determined to have the child but refuses to reveal the father's identity to her family.
  • The Van (1991, shortlisted for the 1991 Booker Prize; 1996 film) — Jimmy Sr. is laid off, as is his friend Bimbo. Bimbo buys a used fish and chips van and the two go into business for themselves.
• Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha (1993, winner of the 1993 Booker Prize) — The world as described, understood and misunderstood by a ten-year-old Dubliner.
• Paula Spencer novels:
  • The Woman Who Walked into Doors (1996) — A story of a battered wife, narrated by the victim; despite her husband's increasingly violent behaviour, she defends him, using the classic excuse "I walked into a door" to explain her bruises.
  • Paula Spencer (2006) — Ten years after The Woman Who Walked into Doors, its protagonist returns.
• The Last Roundup:
  • A Star Called Henry (1999) — The story of Henry Smart, an IRA assassin and 1916 Easter Rebellion fighter, from his birth in Dublin to his adulthood when he becomes a father.
  • Oh, Play That Thing! (2004) — Henry Smart's adventures in 1924 America, specifically the Lower East Side of New York City, 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 with Louis Armstrong. The title is taken from a phrase that is shouted in one of Louis Armstrong's songs, "Dippermouth Blues".
  • The Dead Republic (2010) — Henry Smart collaborates on writing the script for a Hollywood film. He returns to Ireland and is offered work as the caretaker in a school, then circumstances lead to him re-establishing his link with the IRA.

Short story collections

• The Deportees and Other Stories, September 2007.
• Bullfighting, April 2011.

Uncollected short stories

• "Recuperation" — The New Yorker, 15 December 2003.
• "The Slave" — Middle-aged man reads Cold Mountain and obsesses over a dead rat.
• "Teaching" — Reflections of a spent, alcoholic teacher. The New Yorker, 2 April 2007.
• "The Dog" — A man ponders the gradual erosion of his marriage. New Yorker, 5 November 2007.
• "Bullfighting" — Four middle-aged friends from Ireland take a week's vacation in Spain and reflect on life. New Yorker, 28 April 2008 [1]
• "The Child" — An insomniac is constantly plagued by intrusive visions of a boy. McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories, 2004.
• "Sleep" — A man admires his wife while she is sleeping, reflecting also on his life with her. The New Yorker, 20 October 2008, The Sunday Times, 15 February 2009 (online text)
• "The Bandstand" - A homeless Polish immigrant in Dublin comes to terms with money and his family. "San Francisco Panorama," 8 December 2009. Also, it was a work in progress published in monthly installments in Dublin immigrant magazine Metro Eireann, and recently^[11]
• "Ash" - "The New Yorker", 24 May 2010 (online text)
• "Brilliant" - March 2011 ^[12]

Co-Authored

• Click - 2007

Non-fiction

• Rory and Ita — About Doyle's parents.

Theatre

• Brownbread (1987)
• War (1989)
• The Woman Who Walked into Doors (2003)
• Rewrite of The Playboy of the Western World (2007) with Bisi Adigun

Screenplays

• When Brendan Met Trudy (2000) — A romance about a timid schoolteacher (Brendan) and a spunky thief (Trudy).
• New Boy (2008) — Academy Award-nominated short film directed by Steph Green, based on a Doyle short story of same name.^[13]

Television screenplay

• Family (1994) — BBC/RTÉ serial which was the forerunner of the 1996 novel The Woman Who Walked Into Doors.

Children's books

• Not Just for Christmas (1999)
• The Giggler Treatment (2000)
• Rover Saves Christmas (2001)
• The Meanwhile Adventures (2004)
• Wilderness (2007)
• Her Mother's Face (2008)
• A Greyhound of a Girl (2011)

Research work about the author

• An Indecency Decently Put: Roddy Doyle and Contemporary Irish Fiction, by Niall McArdle (M.A. thesis, 1994, University College, Dublin)
• La réécriture de l'histoire dans les Romans de Roddy Doyle, Dermot Bolger et Patrick McCabe by Alain Mouchel-Vallon (PhD thesis, 2005, Reims University, France). [2]

Further reading

• Allen Randolph, Jody. "Roddy Doyle, August 2009." Close to the Next Moment: Interviews from a Changing Ireland. Manchester: Carcanet, 2010.
• Boland, Eavan. "Roddy Doyle." Irish Writers on Writing. San Antonio: Trinity University Press, 2007.
• McCarthy, Dermot. Roddy Doyle: Raining on the Parade. Dublin: Liffey Press, 2003.
• Reynolds, Margaret and Jonathan Noakes. Roddy Doyle: The Essential Guide. London: Random House, 2004.
• White, Caramine. Reading Roddy Doyle. Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 2001.

External links

• Archive of Doyle's short fiction for The New Yorker. Stories available without a subscription include:

"Ash" (24 May 2010)

"Sleep" (20 Oct 2008)

"Bullfighting" (28 Apr 2008)

"The Dog" (5 Nov 2007)

"Teaching" (2 Apr 2007)

"The Photograph" (16 Oct 2006)

"The Joke" (29 Nov 2004)

"Recuperation" (15 Dec 2003)

• Author page at Irish Writers Online
• Roddy Doyle: Author Biography Postcolonial Studies At Emory.
• Roddy Doyle's rules for writers
• Roddy Doyle's verdict on James Joyce's Ulysses
• The Salon Interview: Roddy Doyle
• Roddy Doyle At Fantastic Fiction
• Reviews of Paula Spencer (2006)
• Family at the Internet Movie Database
• When Brendan Met Trudy at the Internet Movie Database
• Writing Centre: Roddy Doyle (2009)

References

v t e Roddy Doyle Novels The Barrytown Trilogy The Commitments (1987) The Snapper (1990) The Van (1991) Paula Spencer Family (TV, 1994) The Woman Who Walked into Doors (1996) Paula Spencer (2006) The Last Roundup A Star Called Henry (1999) Oh, Play That Thing! (2004) The Dead Republic (2010) Children's novels Not Just for Christmas (1999) The Giggler Treatment (2000) Rover Saves Christmas (2001) The Meanwhile Adventures (2004) Wilderness (2007) Her Mother's Face (2008) Other Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha (1993) Short stories The Deportees (2008) Bullfighting (2011) Films The Commitments (1991) The Snapper (1993) The Van (1996) When Brendan Met Trudy (2000) New Boy (2008) Theatre Brownbread (1987) War (1989) The Woman Who Walked into Doors (2003) The Playboy of the Western World (2007)

v t e Recipients of the Booker Prize Category:Winning works List of winners and shortlisted authors Lost Man Booker Prize The Best of the Booker 1969–1979 Newby (1969) Rubens (1970) Farrell (1970)† Naipaul (1971) Berger (1972) Farrell (1973) Gordimer / Middleton (1974) Jhabvala (1975) Storey (1976) Scott (1977) Murdoch (1978) Fitzgerald (1979) 1980–1989 Golding (1980) Rushdie (1981) Keneally (1982) Coetzee (1983) Brookner (1984) Hulme (1985) K. Amis (1986) Lively (1987) Carey (1988) Ishiguro (1989) 1990–1999 Byatt (1990) Okri (1991) Ondaatje / Unsworth (1992) Doyle (1993) Kelman (1994) Barker (1995) Swift (1996) Roy (1997) McEwan (1998) Coetzee (1999) 2000–2009 Atwood (2000) Carey (2001) Martel (2002) Pierre (2003) Hollinghurst (2004) Banville (2005) Desai (2006) Enright (2007) Adiga (2008) Mantel (2009) 2010–present Jacobson (2010) Barnes (2011) † Awarded in 2010 as the Lost Man Booker Prize, due to a change in the contest rules Bold = Second win Italics = Currently deceased