Wilson John Haire (Playwright)
Life
Born 6th April, 1932 of a Roman Catholic mother (nee Boyce) and a Presbyterian father Wilson Haire, in Belfast. Four younger sisters. Father a joiner. Mother from land-owning family, Omagh, County Tyrone. Brought up as a Roman Catholic, like sisters. Two sisters later became Methodists as teenagers. Educated at Clontonacally Public Elementary School, Carryduff, County Down (1938 – 46) – a state school but mainly Presbyterian - run by the very erudite Alexander Tombe, headmaster, and fighter against sectarianism. Foolishly left school before the age of 14 despite parental appeals. Entered Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast at the age of 14 as an office boy. At 16 became an indentured apprentice woodworker for 5 years, in same shipyard. Left shipyard at 21 to become a ballroom supervisor at the Plaza, Belfast. At 22 left for London. Worked in the building trade for a number of years. Five children from first marriage.
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| Titles: | REFUGE FROM THE TICK-MAN (June, 1960) |
| THE SCREENING (December, 1960) | |
| THE BEG (September, 1961) | |
| First Published: | The Irish Democrat (an Irish-in-Britain monthly paper) 1960 & 1961 |
| Genre: | Short Stories |
| Synopsis: | Life as a Catholic teenager in Northern Ireland. |
PLAYS FOR THE THEATRE
| Titles: | THE CLOCKIN’ HEN |
| DEVIL ERA | |
| Theatre Company: | Camden Group Theatre, London |
| First Produced: | 7th June, 1968, Hampstead Theatre, London |
| Genre: | Drama - Two One-Act Plays |
| Parts: | 6 Male |
| Synopsis: | THE CLOCKIN’ HEN - A demonstration against an Ian Paisley march through a Belfast Catholic area in 1962 causes a riot which results in a court case. Note: The Clockin’ Hen - the title - is the broody hen which is about to hatch out the egg that results in war. |
| DIVIL ERA - Two brothers in the B-Specials (auxiliary police in N. Ireland, disbanded in 1972) guard a road bridge. Without very much to do they pick on their father's farm labourer when he approaches drunkenly (after a night out) and verbally torment him. | |
| Title: | THE DIAMOND BONE AND HAMMER AND ALONG THE SHOUGHS OF ULSTER |
| Company: | Camden Group Theatre, London |
| First Produced: | 25th November, 1968, Hampstead Theatre, London. |
| Genre: | Drama - Full Length Play |
| Parts: | 6 Male, 6 Female |
| Notes: | Also produced at Unity Theatre, London on the 8th of August, 1969 |
| Synopsis: | Influenced by Brecht's FEAR AND MISERY IN THE THIRD REICH. It shows in 7 scenes life in Northern Ireland for the average Catholic during the old Stormont Regime in the 1950s and early 1960s. |
| Title: | WITHIN TWO SHADOWS |
| First Produced: | 12th April 1972, Royal Court Theatre, London |
| Published: | 1973, by Davis-Poynter, London, in paperback PLAYSCRIPTS (ISBN0706701224) Also published in Plays and Players, June, 1972, and in SCRIPTS, September, 1972 by New York Shakespeare Festival Public Theatre |
| Genre: | Drama - full-length play |
| Parts: | 6 male, 6 female |
| Notes: | Winner of GEORGE DEVINE AWARD 1972 & EVENING STANDARD MOST PROMISING PLAYWRIGHT AWARD, LEVERHULME AWARD FOR WRITING IN THEATRE 1976 and various Arts Council Awards from Arts Council of Great Britain and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. WITHIN TWO SHADOWS also produced at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast, 16th September, 1972 and at the Cork Opera House, Ireland, 13th November, 1972. Staged reading in 1974 at The Theatre in St Clements, New York. Translated into German as ZWISCHEN DEN SCHATTEN. 1979. |
| Synopsis: | A mixed family of Catholic father, Protestant mother, four daughters and a son, are torn apart by the advent of sectarian violence on a large housing estate outside Belfast during 1969. |
| Title: | BLOOM OF THE DIAMOND STONE. Preceded by 2 mummer plays – BLIND DAWN and, BILLY’S BIKE RIDE. |
| First Produced: | 9th of October, 1973, Abbey Theatre, Dublin. (National Theatre of Ireland) |
| First Published: | 1979 Pluto Press, London, (ISBN 0 86104 207 7) |
| Genre: | Drama - full-length play |
| Parts: | 5 male, 5 female |
| Synopsis: | BLIND DAWN & BILLY’S BIKE RIDE briefly depicts Catholic and Protestant history in N. Ireland in cartoon style before BLOOM OF THE DIAMOND STONE begins the story of girl/boy relationship in Belfast factory as it runs into difficulties due to their different backgrounds. |
| Notes: | translated into German as LOS DER HOFFNUNG and produced at the Staatstheater, Braunschweig, Kleins Haus, Germany, 13/3/79 |
| Title: | ECHOES FROM A CONCRETE CANYON |
| First Produced: | 1975, Royal Court Theatre, London |
| Genre: | Drama - full-length play |
| Parts: | 2 male, 3 female |
| Synopsis: | A woman in a high rise block in London slowly disintegrates when her husband leaves her and she meets up with a slightly deranged lover. The woman's teenage daughter also gives her hell in the process of growing up. |
| Title: | LOST WORLDS (umbrella title for NEWSFLASH, WEDDING BREAKFAST, ROOST.) |
| First Produced: | 12th May, 1978, Cottesloe, National Theatre, London. |
| First Published: | Heinemann, London (ISBN 0435 233637) 1978 |
| Genre: | Drama - Three One-Act plays |
| Parts: | 1 male, 8 female (interchangeable) |
| General synopsis: | Depicting individual lives destroyed by the wars of the 20th Century |
| Synopsis: | NEWSFLASH - A bedridden Protestant mother and her 3 middle-aged unmarried daughters are caught up in a fire fight between the Irish Republican Army and the British Army along the N. Ireland border with the Republic of Ireland. A mortar rounds comes through their roof killing them just as they have fatalistically climbed on to their mother's bed to make a last fantasy journey to town. |
WEDDING BREAKFAST - A young IRA man has just married when he and his bride must flee to a derelict house to have their wedding breakfast, aided by a neighbour while the British Army slowly sledgehammer their way through the walls of the mostly derelict street. Soon they will reach the walls of the young couple. Notes: WEDDING BREAKFAST - Also produced as a single play at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, Surrey, 13th November, 1981. |
|
ROOST - A young Cambodian girl, as a child, was taken out of her country illegally by a British charity organisation. As she grows into adolescence she begins to have strange and sudden insights into her past life. She watches the skies for planes continually and notes their vapour trails. Snatches of her language returns. Slowly her past life comes back to her and ends in the murder of her foster-parents. Notes: ROOST also performed at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London, 1984, as a single play. |
|
| Notes: | LOST WORLDS translated into German as VERLORENE WELTEN by Universitt Kiel, Germany,1980. |
| Title: | LETTER FROM A SOLDIER |
| First Produced: | April, 1977 (as a theatre play) Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, London. |
| Genre: | Drama - One-Act play |
| Parts: | 2 male, 2 female |
| Notes: | Also translated into German and performed at Gymnasium Sylt, Darmstadt and at Universitt Kiel, Germany. 1980 |
| Synopsis: | A soldier returns from duty in N. Ireland and suffers delayed trauma from his experiences there. This causes problems for his mother and younger brother. |
Positions held in Theatre: Resident Dramatist Royal Court Theatre 1974. Resident Dramatist at Lyric Theatre, Belfast, 1976.
PLAYS FOR TELEVISION
| Title: | LETTER FROM A SOLDIER |
| First Produced: | BBC2 1975 |
| Genre: | Drama – Television |
| Parts: | 2 male, 3 female |
| Synopsis: | A soldier returns from duty in N. Ireland and suffers delayed trauma from his experiences there. This causes problems for his mother and younger brother. |
| Title: | THE DANDELION CLOCK |
| First Produced: | BBC1 (Play for Today) 1975 |
| Genre: | Drama – Television |
| Parts: | 25 male, 28 female |
| Synopsis: | A young girl goes missing in Belfast during the height of The Troubles in Belfast, 1975. She encounters a group of Catholic girls whom she has never met before - among her many other innocent adventures. |
NOVELS
| Title: | THE YARD |
| Genre: | A collection of short stories |
| First Published: | May 2002, by Brandon/Mount Eagle Publications, Dingle, County Kerry, Ireland. (ISBN 0 86322 296 X) |
| Synopsis: | Life in Belfast and the rural areas from the 1930s to the 1950s through the eyes of a young boy to manhood. |
| Resident Dramatist: | Royal Court Theatre, London 1974 |
| Lyric Theatre, Belfast, 1976. |
ARTICLES
MUGGED ILLUSIONS (on a visit to Cuba) Labour & Trade Union Review, January, 1999
CARRYDUFF AND 1798 (Irish Political Review, November, 2004)
GUANTANAMO BAY CAMPAIGN DEMONSTRATION (a report) (Labour & Trade Union Review. February 2006)
I SLEPT WITH JAMES CONNOLLY (contribution to the Patrick Pearse discussion) (Church & State, Spring, 2006)
SOME RECOLLECTIONS OF THE CONNOLLY ASSOCIATION (Irish Political Review, April, 2006)
THE REALITY OF 1916 (Part one of book review of Six Days of the Irish Republic by L..G..Redmond-Howard,. Irish Political Review, April 2006)
IRELAND, INSIDE AND OUT (Part two, book review of Six Days of the Irish Republic by L..G..Redmond-Howard, Irish Political Review, May, 2006)
ANTI-WAR MARCH (a report) (Labour & Trade Union Review, May, 2006)
THE WIND THAT SHOOK THE BARLEY (film review) Labour & Trade Union Review, July/Aug, 2006)
THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE LEFT MOVEMENT IN A SECTARIAN SOCIETY (Irish Political Review, August, 2006)
LEBANESE PROTEST MARCH (a report) (Labour & Trade Union Review, September, 2006)
THE GREAT COUP D’état (Labour & Trade Union Review, October, 2006)
REPORT FROM THE PHILIPPINES (Labour & Trade Union Review, February, 2007)
I WAS DAVID BEN-GURION’S POODLE (Labour & Trade Union Review, April, 2007)
ANGLICISATION (Labour & Trade Union Review, May, 2007)
BACK IN THE BOX (Irish political Review, August, 2007)
A LOST BELFAST WORLD (book review of Will Morrison’s novel Between the Mountains and the Gantries, Church & State, August, 2007)
HUNGER (film review) (Labour & Trade Union Review, December/January 2008)
WHAT IS POSSIBLE (Irish Political Review, January, 2008)
ERNEST BEVIN AND THE COLD WAR (Labour & Trade Union Review, May 2008)
HIGH NOON IN LONDON’S HIGHGATE WARD (Labour & Trade Union Review, June 2008)
FEAR AND MISERY IN BRITAIN’S SIX COUNTIES (Irish Political Review, September, 2008)
AMNESIA IN PHNOM PENH (Labour & Trade Union Review, May, 2008)
ME AN ATHEIST? SURELY TO GOD NOT! Church & State, 4th Quarter, 2008)
SOME ULSTER SOCIAL HISTORY (review: In the Shadow of Giants – Social History of the Belfast Shipyards by Kevin Johnston ) Church & State Third Quarter, 2009.
ULSTER-SCOTS, LANGUAGE OR DIALECT? Church & State, Fourth Quarter, 2009
POEMS
WORMS ALSO DIE (Irish Political Review, September, 2008)
JULIUS FUCIK (Irish Political Review, October, 2008)
POPPY DAY (Irish Political Review, December, 2008)
AZIZABAD (Irish Political Review, January, 2009)
MARRIED TO DEATH (Irish Political Review, January, 2009)
A DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY? (Church & State, 1st Quarter, 2009)
AMNESIA IN PHNOM PENH (Labour & Trade Union Review, February, 2009)
THE SAD SANDS OF RAFAH (Irish Political Review, February, 2009)
NON (Irish Political Review, March, 2009)
TOP OF THE WORLD, MA! (Church & State, 2nd Quarter, 2009)
THE VIEW FROM ALBION HEIGHTS (Church & State, 2nd Quarter, 2009)
LIVING IN GLASS HOUSES (Irish Political Review, April, 2009)
UP THE POLE (Irish Political Review, April, 2009)
SOMETHING IN THE CITY (Labour & Trade Union Review, May, 2009)
STILL BIRTH (Irish Political Review, May, 2009)
GUESS WHO’S NOT COMING TO DINNER (Irish Political Review, June, 2009)
TARIQ AZIZ (Irish Political Review, July, 2009)
TIOCHAIDH AR LA (Church & State. Third Quarter 2009)
MARKED FOR LIFE (Church & State. Third Quarter 2009)
RECIPE FOR AN ALBION MEAT PIE (Irish Political Review. July, 2009)
LIFTED (Church & State. Third Quarter, 2009)
THE TROUBLE WITH COLOUR (Labour & Trade Union Review July/August 2009)
AND IS THER JAFFA CAKES STILL FOR TEA ( Irish Political Review. August, 2009)
THE SAD SANDS OF RAFAH (an elegy to Iman al-Hams, a 13 year-old schoolgirl killed by Israeli soldiers) read on Press TV by Lauren Booth and Amina Taylor 4th Aug & 11th Aug, 2009.
DEATH IMPROVED Irish Political Review, August, 2009
THE WALL Irish Political Review August 2009
REMEMBERING THE CHILDREN OF PALESTINE Irish Political Review, August, 2009
IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN Labour & Trade Union Review. September, 2009
NETZARIM JUNCTION (full version) Irish Political review. October, 2009
NON (republished) Irish Political Review. October, 2009
A NATIONAL TREASURE Labour & Trade Union Review. October, 2009
KILLERS Labour & Trade Union Review. October, 2009
PINOCCHIO FOR PRESIDENT Labour & Trade Union Review. October, 2009
IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN (republished) Irish Political Review. October, 2009
BETTY WINDSOR’S DAY TRIP Church & State. Fourth Quarter. 2009
AL-MEGRAHI Church & State. Fourth Quarter 2009-11-12
TURNCOAT Irish Political Review, November, 2009
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Criticism
D.E.S. Maxwell’s Modern Irish Drama. (Cambridge UP 1984)
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Notes
Member: SOCIETY OF AUTHORS. (UK)
Contact: wilsonjohnhaire@gmail.com
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)