Life
1881-1965
[var. Beaslaí; anglice Piers Beasley]; b. Liverpool; ed. by Jesuits;
ed. English Catholic Times; moved to Dublin, 1904; fnd. Gaelic
Speakers League; fnd. ed., An Fáinne, and fnd. Society of
Gaelic Writers; ed. board Irish Freedom; joined Irish Volunteers;
ed. An tOglach; served as president of Na hAisteoirí [Risings],
dramatic society; proposed the motion that Gaelic League constitution
should include gaol of independent Ireland Gaelic and free from foreign
influence, occasioning resignation of Douglas Hyde from League Presidency,
Ard Fheis, 1915; participated in 1916 Rising, engaging British forces
in North King St.; worked closely with Collins at headquarters as IRA
Publicity Director; imprisoned in Mountjoy, 1916; escaped March 1919;
recaptured after 3 months; later escaped from Strangeways, Manchester;
TD East Kerry, Dec. 1918-1912; TD West Limerick, 1921-23; voted for Treaty
in 1921; Commissioner-Gen. National Army and head of Press Censorship
Dept. during Civil War; toured America, 1922; toured USA on publicity
campaign, 1922; published ‘Comrade’s Tribute’ in An
Saorstát (30 Aug. 1922); issued Cluiche Cártí
(1920); published Political Formulae Instead of Principles (1922);
resigned from Free State Army, 1923 [var. 1924]; commissioned to write
the life of Michael Collins by the dead man’s elder br. Seán,
on behalf of the family, and produced Michael Collins and The Making
of the New Ireland (2 vols., 1926); later claimed that members of De Valera’s
cabinet ordered raids on his home in which papers were removed in Oct.
1925; won Gold medal for play in Irish, Tailteann Games 1929; issued Astronar
(1928), a novel; wrote Danar (1929), a play; plays collected
as A Sgaothaire agus Cúig Drámaí Eile (1929);
also An Bhean Chródha (1931), Cuigheachas (1936),
An Fear as Buenos Aires (1936), An Fear Fograidheachta (1938),
a farce; Cormac na Coille (n.d.) and Fear an Sgéilín
Grinn (n.d.); trans. Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer (1939)
and wrote The Story of the Catholic Commercial Club, Dublin 1881-1954
(?1957); coined the term ‘irregular’ used to designate Republican
forces in 1922; d. 22 June, Dublin. DIW DIB DIH OCIL
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Works
DRAMA, Fear na Milliún Púnt (Dublin 1915); An
Sgaothaire agus Cuig Dramaí Eile (Baile Atha Cliath 1929),
172pp [poetry and plays]. POETRY, Bealtáine 1916 & Dánta
Eile (1920); Éigse nua-Gaedhilge [cuid 1-11] (1933-34).
FICTION, Astronár (1928); Earc agus Áine agus
Scéalta Eile (1946). PROSE, Michael Collins and The Making
of the New Ireland, 2 vols. (Dublin: Phoenix 1926), and Do.,
as Michael Collins: Soldier and Statesman [abridged 1 vol. edn.]
(Dublin: Talbot Press 1937), xii, 430pp., with pls. & ports. MISCELLANEOUS,
ed., Songs, Ballads, and Recitations by Famous Irishmen (Dublin:
Walton Musical Instrument Galleries [n.d.]).
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Criticism
Deirdre MacMahon, ‘"A Worthy Monument to a Great Man": Piaras
Béaslaí’s Life of Michael Collins’, Bullán: An
Irish Studies Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Spring/Summer 1996), pp.55-65.
See also lengthy citations and disparagements of Béaslaí’s Michael Collins and the Making of a New Ireland, in St. John Ervine, Craigavon (1949), pp.404 and 435.
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Notes
Henry Boylan, Dictionary of Irish Biography (Dublin: Gill
& MacMillan 1988); b. Liverpool, ed. local Jesuit College; ed. Catholic
Times, England; arrived Dublin, 1904; fnd. An Fáinne; president
of Na hAisteoirí [Rising], dram. soc.; proposed motion that
Gaelic League should stand for free and Gaelic Ireland independent of
foreign influence, leading to resignation of Hyde, 1915 congress; fought
in N. King St. area in 1916 Rising; escaped jail in Ireland and from Strangeways,
Manchester; Dir. Publicity IRA; voted for Treaty in 1921; toured USA on
publicity campaign, 1922; head of press censor dept. during civil war;
RD East Kerry, 1918-21; comm.-gen. of army; TD Kerry and West Limerick,
1921-23; resigned from army, 1924; Gold medal for play in Irish, Tailteann
Games 1929; also Astronar (1928), novel; An Danar (1929),
[play]; d. Dublin, 22 June.
Doherty & Hickey, A Chronology of Irish History Since 1500, (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1989); lists works titles Cluiche Cártí (1920); Political Formulae Instead of Principles (1922); Michael Collins and the Making of a New Ireland (2 vols., 1926); A Sgaothaire agus cúig drámaí eile (1929); Danar (1929), [play]; An Bhean Chródha (1931); Cuigheachas (1936); An fear as Buenos Aires (1936); Michael Collins, Soldier and Statesman (1937); Cormac na Coille [n.d.]; Fear an sgéilín grinn [n.d.], [play]; The Story of the Catholic Commercial Club, Dublin 1881-1954 (Dublin: Piaras Beaslai Publisher ?1957, var. 1958); ed. Arthur Griffith, Songs, Ballads and Recitations [n.d.]; trans. Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer (1939).
University of Ulster at Coleraine, Morris Collection holds Éigse No-Ghaedhilge, cuid a haon agus a do, 2 vols. (c. 1935).
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Ernie O’Malley, The Singing Flame, pref. by Frances-Mary
Blake (Dublin: Anvil Books, 1978), p. 7; notes that Béaslaí
coined the term ‘irregular’ for the Republican forces in 1922 (p.7)
Tom McIntyre accredits Beaslaí’s two-volume life of Collins, the end of which ‘left me [McIntyre] quivering’, with the inspiration for his own Good Evening, Mr Collins, in Frank McGuinness, ed., The Dazzling Dark: New Irish Plays (London: Faber 1996), ‘Afterword’, p.231ff.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)