Life
1949- ; [William Michael Roche]; b. Wexford, ed. Christian Brothers; became
barman, factory hand, and builder’s labourer; singer in 1975, then
actor, and finally a writer; Tumbling Down (1986), novel; wrote
a play, The Boker Poker Club, centred on Johnny Doran, a small-town
rebel and set in a snooker hall; premiered at Wexford Arts Centre with
a local cast including himself as Stapler, 1986, and reissued as A
Handful of Stars (1988), the first of the ‘Wexford Trilogy’,
being played successfully at the Bush Theatre; winner of John Whiting
Award and Plays and Players Award for Most Promising Playwright; Poor
Beast in the Rain (1989), originally conceived as ‘Runaway’,
set in a betting shop and commissioned by the Bush Theatre; winner of
Thames TV Bursary Award, Charrington Fringe Award, and George Devine Award;
Belfry (1991), set in the local church; all three played to full
houses at the Peacock, Dublin, and the Bush Theatre, London; writer in
residence at Bush Theatre, 1989; produced on BBC TV (Summer 1993); also
Amphibians (1992) and The Cavalcaders (1993); new novel,
The Sound of a Lonely Lute (1993); lives in Wexford with wife Patty
and three daughters. OCIL
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Works
Tumbling Down (Dublin: Wolfhound 1986); The Wexford Trilogy:
A Handful of Stars, Poor Beast in the Rain and Belfry,
afterword by Billy Roche (Nick Hern Books 1994), 180pp.; ‘Afterword’,
187-89pp. Journalism, ‘My Summer Job: Blood, Swear and Tears’,
in The Irish Times (8 Aug. 1996), p.8.
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Criticism
[q.a.],
review of The Wexford Trilogy, at The Bush, London W12, Dec. 1992,
Independent, 9 Dec.1992; A Handful of Stars, Poor Beast
in the Rain, and Belfry.
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Notes
‘My Summer Job: Blood, Swear and Tears’ (The Irish
Times, 8 Aug. 1996, p.8), is a short account of four weeks working
in a hotel, presumably during adolescence.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)