Life
1879-1964, b. Ballydonoghue, Co. Kerry, son of entered British Customs
and Excise office, Limerick 1901; ed. St. Michael’s College, Listowel;
worked in Scottish Highlands, Derbyshire, Staffordshire, and the Yorkshire
dales and the west of Ireland; transferred to Irish service in 1923, retired
1934, and lived in Blackrock, Co. Dublin; The Key above the Door
(1926), concerning the competition between Tom King, gentleman farmer,
and Edward Leng, a home-counties man of great wealth who has rented property
in Scotland, for the heart of Agnes de Burc, a beauteous young lady and
somewhat Celtic heroine; the novel enacts the struggle of the Celtic and
Saxon, and celebrated the virtues of the more morally-developed Celtic
type; written out of nostalgia for Scotland, sold 250,000 copies [but
see same figure, infra]; Blackcock’s Feather (1932) is set
in Elizabethan Ireland; unsuccessfully entered The Key Above the Door
in a novel competition; issued by Chambers in 1926 and went on to sell
150,000 copies; retired 1933; ‘The Quiet Man’ at first rejected
and afterward publ. in Saturday Evening Post, Feb. 1933; rights
bought by John Ford in 1936 (ultimately paying $10,000 for the author’s
co-operation); later filmed on location at Ashford Castle [and environs],
Cong, Co. Galway, 1951, starring John Wayne, with Barry Fitzgerald and
other Irish actors; issued And No Quarter (1937) dealing with the
wars of Montrose; President of PEN, 1938; issued Sons of the Swordmaker
(1938), romance based on story of Conaire Mor and Da Derga; co-wrote with
Sean Ó’Faolain a special article in the Saturday Evening
Post (1939) justifying Ireland’s neutrality in World War II;
there is a bust based on a plaster by Seamus Murphy in Ballydonoghue;
d. 18 Feb.; the papers of Maurice Walsh were acquired for Glucksman Chair
of Contemporary Literature by Limerick University Library, Dec. 2002.
DIW DIB DIL KUN OCIL
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Works
Novels, The Key Above the Door (London & Edinburgh:
Chambers 1926), 264pp.; another edn. (London: Pan Books 1973); While
Rivers Run (London & Edinburgh: Chambers 1928), 394pp. [ten edns.
to 1932]; The Small Dark Man (London & Edinburgh: Chambers
1930) [var. 1929], 304pp.; another edn (London: Pan Books 1973); Blackcock’s
Feather (London & Edinburgh: Chambers 1932 [edns.]), 380pp.; The
Road to Nowhere (London & Edinburgh: Chambers 1934; edns. incl.
1945); And No Quarter (London & Edinburgh: Chambers 1937);
Sons of the Swordmaker (Dublin: Talbot Press 1938), 296pp; The
Hill is Mine (London & Edinburgh: Chambers 1940); The Spanish
Lady (London & Edinburgh, Chambers 1943); The Man in Brown
(London & Edinburgh: Chambers 1945); Son of Apple (London &
Edinburgh, Chambers 1947); Castle Gillian (London & Edinburgh:
Chambers 1948), 304pp. [var 254pp.]; Trouble in the Glen (London
& Edinburgh, Chambers 1951; rep. Balnain Bks. 1994), 300pp.; A
Strange Woman’s Daughter (London & Edinburgh: Chambers 1956)
[var. 1954], 156pp.; Danger Under the Moon (London & Edinburgh:
Chambers 1954) [var. 1956]; The Smart Fellow (London & Edinburgh:
Chambers 1964);
Short stories, The Green Rushes (London & Edinburgh: Chambers 1935; Pan 1973; rep. as The Quiet Man and Other Stories [orig. The Green Rushes, 1935] (Belfast: Appletree [?1977]); Tomasheen James, Man of No Work (London & Edinburgh: Chambers 1941; 4th imp. 1946), 257pp.; Son of a Tinker and Other Tales (London & Edinburgh, Chambers 1952); The Honest Fisherman and Other Stories (London & Edinburgh: Chambers 1954), 150pp.
Miscellaneous, a foreword for a book by Richard Hayward and received the dedication of another. [vars. DIL & IF2]. See also Des Byrne, The Quiet Man, Quiz 1000 (Cló Iar-Chonnachta 1992), 100pp.
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Criticism
Francis MacManus, [on Maurice Walsh], Capuchin Annual (1965).
Joanne L. Henderson, ‘Four Kerry Writers: Fitzmaurice, Walsh, MacMahon, Keane: A Checklist’, in Listowel Writers’, Number of Journal of Irish Literature, 1 (May 1972).
Steve Matheson, Maurice Walsh, Storyteller (Dingle: Brandon Press 1985), 166pp.
Des MacHale, The Complete Guide to the Quiet Man (Belfast: Appletree Press 2002), 240pp. There is a Quiet Man fan club website.
Michael O’Regan, “Irishman’s Diary” (Irish
Times, 1 Aug. 1995).
Steve Matheson, Maurice Walsh, Storyteller (Dingle: Brandon Press 1985), 166pp.
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Notes
Desmond Clarke, Ireland in Fiction: A Guide to Irish Novels,
Tales, Romances and Folklore [Pt. 2] (Cork: Royal Carbery 1985), lists
The Key Above the Door (London & Edinburgh: Chambers 1926),
264pp.; While Rivers Run (London & Edinburgh: Chambers 1928),
394pp.; The Small Dark Man (London & Edinburgh: Chambers 1930),
304pp.; Blackcock’s Feather (London & Edinburgh: Chambers
1932), 380pp.; Sons of the Swordmaker (Dublin: Talbot Press 1938),
296pp; Tomasheen James, Man of No Work (London & Edinburgh:
Chambers 1941), 257pp.; Son of Apple (London & Edinburgh: Chambers
1947); Castle Gillian (London & Edinburgh: Chambers 1948),
254pp.; A Strange Woman’s Daughter (London & Edinburgh:
Chambers 1956), 156pp.; Danger Under the Moon (London & Edinburgh:
Chambers 1954), 245pp.; The Honest Fisherman and Other Stories
(London & Edinburgh: Chambers 1954), 150pp. BIBL, Hogan (Dictionary
of Irish Literature, 1979), cites fiction as supra.
Penguin Books: Bio-data from dust-jacket of the 1958 Penguin edn. of The Key Above The Door, b. Listowel, British Civil Service, posted to Scottish Highlands; first short stories appeared in Dublin Magazine; other works including The Quiet Man, a story, later included in Green Rushes; two detective novels, and eighteen books. Settled back in Ireland in the Wicklow hills. The inside cover copies a letter from Sir James Barrie, ‘have spent some very happy hours over it ... rather thrilled that such a fine yarn should have come out of the heather.’
Sons of the Sword (1938), dramatis personae, Cormac, North
British King; Ingcel, Prince of Cumbria, his son; Cerbin, chf. of Ormlyth;
Tuilchinic, Pictish folk of Strathclyde; Conaire of Tara, son of Eterscel;
Face of Stone, the malevolent warrior, who turns out to be Delgaun. Conaire
is under a geasa centred on Da Derga, the Destruction of which is the
central episode of the narrative; Ingcel gives Fer Rogain the destruction
of his father’s house in N. Britain then by agreement they move to
Da Derga for a reciprocation; Flann leads them to it, but pleads for the
life of Conaire, while Dairne plays the part of Cassandra, warning Conaire
on Flann’s behalf.
“The Quiet Man”, first publ. in Saturday Evening Post, Feb. 1933 [also Chamber’s Journal], and rep. as a chapter in his portmanteau novel The Green Rushes (1935), a narrative of linking personal stories pertaining to a group of IRA men and one woman coming to terms with memories of the War of Independence, and finding forgiveness and inner peace; ‘The Quiet Man’ was filmed on location at Cong by John Ford, 1951, having bought the right in 1936, with John Wayne, Barry Fitzgerald and other Irish actors; it includes a sub-plot in which a Catholic priest (Ward Bond) helps save the job of a Protestant clergyman (Arthur Shields). [Information supplied by Patrick O’Sullivan; Irish-Diaspora List, Bradford, 1998.]
“Then Came the Captain’s Daughter”, story, probably based on incident in Civil War when a Col. Hudson in the Black and Tans was permitted to go fishing by the local Volunteers. (See Books Ireland, Tony Canavan reviewing Kenneth Griffith and Timothy O’Grady, Curious Journey: An Oral History of Ireland’s Unfinished Revolution, Dec. 1998, p.349.)
Anthony Cronin (No Laughing Matter, 1989), cites Patrick Kavanagh’s review of Walsh’s novel The Hill is Mine in The Irish Times (20 July 1940), followed by his letter to the Editor of 7 Aug. 1940 (p.120; with comments.)
Books Ireland (Oct. 1992), writes: ‘apparently if you live in Cong, where the 1951 movie is shown continually ..’.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)