Life
1873-1959 [Thomas Cornelius Murray], b. 17 Jan. Macroom, Co. Cork; ed.
St. Patrick’s TTC, Drumcondra, 1891; became national school teacher
at several schools in Cork; encouraged by Corkery to write plays, submitting
The Wheel of Fortune (1909; revised as Sovereign Love, 1913)
to the Cork Drama Society’s Little Theatre (An Dún), and revising
in response to constructive criticism by family and friends; bitter experience
of clerical school management at Rathduff, Co. Cork; contrib. New Ireland
Review, Dublin Magazine; and The Bell; appt. head of
Model School[s], Inchicore, 1915 to retirement in 1932; plays performed
at the Abbey were Birthright (1910), the ending of which he implored
Lennox Robinson to alter during production; Maurice Harte (1912),
premiered at the Abbey and produced at the Royal Court (London) during
the Abbey tour of that year; Sovereign Love (1913); The Serf
(abbey 1920), based on his experience with clerical school management;
The Briery Gap (1922); Autumn Fire (1924), a version of
the Phaedra story dealing with the case of a farmer rendered impotent
by an accident who choses a proxy to father his child; considered his
masterpiece, has echoes of Ibsen; later plays, The Pipe in the Fields;
Michaelmas Eve; Illumination, &c., rework older
material; Spring Aftermath (1922) is an autobiographical
novel of childhood; director of Authors’ Guild; President Irish Playwrights’
Association., and Vice-President Irish Academy of Letters; NUI DLitt,
1949; d. 7 March, Dublin; there is a portrait by Seán O’Sullivan,
1929 [NGI]; enjoyed immense popularity with amateur drama societies; some
of his plays were translated into Irish. IF DIB DIW DIH FDA OCIL WJM
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Works
Birthright (Dublin: Maunsel 1911); Maurice Harte (Dublin:
Maunsel 1912), rep. with Stag at Bay (London: Allen & Unwin
1934); Spring and Other Plays [viz., Sovereign Love and
The Briery Gap] (Dublin: Talbot 1917); Aftermath, A Play in
Three Acts (Dublin: Talbot 1922); Autumn Fire, A Play in
Three Acts (London: Allen & Unwin 125); The Pipe in the Fields,
one act, in The Dublin Magazine 2 (April-June 1927), pp.7-30,
rep. with Birthright (London: Allen & Unwin 1928); Michaelmas
Eve, A Play in Three Acts (Allen & Unwin 1932); Spring Horizon
(London: T. Nelson & Sons 1937).
Richard Allen Cave, ed., Selected Plays of T. C. Murray (Gerrrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1999), xxiv, 272pp. [contains “Sovereign Love”, “Birthright”, “Maurice Harte”, “The Briery Gap”, “Autumn Fire”, “The Pipe in the Fields”, an essay on ‘George Shiels, Brinsley MacNamara, &c.’, and ‘Illumination’ [prev. unpubl.], & bibliographical checklist.
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Criticism
Dorothy Macardle, ‘The Dramatic Art of T. C. Murray’ in The
Dublin Magazine, 2 (Jan 1925), pp.393-98.
T. Hogan, ‘T. C. Murray’, Envoy, 3 (Nov. 1950), pp.138-48.
Mícheál Ó hAodha, ‘T. C. Murray and some Critics’, in Studies, 47 (Summer 1958), pp.185-91.
Mícheál Ó hAodha, ‘T. C. Murray - Dramatist’, in Plays and Places (1961) [n.p.].
T. Connolly, ‘T. C. Murray, The Quiet Man’, in The Catholic World 190 (March 1960), pp.364-69.
N. Sahal, Sixty Years of Realistic Irish Drama, 1900-1960 (Bombay: Macmillan 1971), xi, 220pp., ill.
T. G. Fitzgibbon, ‘The Elements of Conflict in the Plays of T. C. Murray’, in Studies 64 (Spring 1975), pp.59-65.
Albert J DeGiacomo, ‘Remembering T. C. Murray’, in Irish University Review (Winter/Autumn 1995), pp.298-307.
Albert J. DeGiacomo, T. C. Murray: Dramatist: Voice of Rural Ireland (Syracuse UP 2003), 212pp.
Richard Cave, ‘Irish Versions of the Phaedra Story’, in Marianne McDonald & J. Michael Walton, eds., Amid Our Troubles: Irish Versions of Greek Tragedy (London: Methuen 2002), qpp.
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Notes
Robert Hogan, ed., Dictionary of Irish Literature (Dublin:
Gill & Macmillan 1979), notes a typescript of Illuminations
[1937] in Boston College Library; remarks, ‘Incompatible marriage
is a recurring theme in Murray’s middle period ... although [he]
worked with combustible material - murder, insanity, families in conflict
(how often the old disable the young), clerical influence, incest - he
was not a controversialist. Primeval passions are disciplined by his intense
Catholicism, and the result is a darkly brooding view of life ... The
comic muse was not his friend’; his comedy, A Flutter of Wings
(Gate 1929), rejected by Abbey; other plays cited, The Blind Wolf
(1928), afterwards titled The Karavoes, set in Hungary; A Stag
at Bay, set in England; Illumination (1929) is the Maurice
Harte theme with a happy ending; The Pipe in the Fields (1927)
departs from realism; a planned sequel of Spring Horizon never materialised.
[William J. Feeney]; bibl. as supra.
Desmond Clarke, Ireland in Fiction: A Guide to Irish Novels, Tales, Romances and Folklore [Pt. 2] (Cork: Royal Carbery 1985), cites Spring Horizon (1937), pp.37; adolescent development - psychological study, set in Co. Cork in Land League days; central character, Stephen Mangan; viewpoint Catholic and nationalist. DIL remarks, ‘a gently paced autobiographical novel of growing up in Cork ... a planned sequel never materialised.’
D. E. S. Maxwell, A Critical History of Modern Irish Drama, 1891-1980 (Cambridge UP 1984), lists Birthright (Maunsel 1911); Maurice Harte (Maunsel 1912); Aftermath (Talbot (1922); Autumn Fire (Lon. 1925; Bost. 1926); Michaelmas Eve (Lon. 1932).
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing, gen. ed. (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 3, selects Birthright [659-74]; 717-18, BIOG & COMM as supra.
Helena Sheehan, Irish Television Drama, A Society and Its Stories (RTE 1987), lists TV films, Autumn Fire, T. C. Murray, adpt. Adrian Vale/dir. Jim Fitzgerald (1965). .
Belfast Central Public Library holds Aftermath (1922); Autumn Fire (1925); Birthright (1911); Maurice Harte (1912); Spring and other plays (1917, 1926); also [prob. unrelated] Jonathan Swift (1954).
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)