JANUARY 2011

Brian Friel is Donegal Person of the Year 2010

There has been a warm welcome to the announcement that the 2010 Donegal Person of the Year is internationally acclaimed playwright Brian Friel.

Brian Friel was born in Tyrone in 1929, his mother Mary McLoone was from Glenties in Donegal and his father Patrick was from Derry. In 1939 his family moved to Derry where he attended St. Columb's College, he received his B.A. from St. Pat's College, Maynooth (1948) and qualified as a teacher at St. Joseph's Training College in Belfast (1950). In 1960 after 10 years as a teacher he left to pursue a full time writing career. He married Anne Morrison in 1954 and in 1966 moved his young family to Inishowen finally settling in Greencastle.

His first big success came in 1964 with 'Philadelphia, Here I Come.' Critically acclaimed it opened the doors of the theatre world to Brian Friel and to Ballybeg (the fictional Donegal town based on Glenties, the setting for most of his plays). It is seen as a turning point for Irish drama and is one of the most important plays of the 1960s.

Mr Friel will be inaugurated as Donegal Personality of the Year at the Annual Gala Dinner which will be held at the Burlington Hotel on Saturday 5th March.

The renowned playwright, author and dramatist was officially informed of the honour by committee members of the Donegal Association Dublin who travelled to his home on Monday evening 17th January. "We are proud to have a man of the literary stature of Brian Friel as Donegal Person of the Year 2010" said Tony Dunlevy, President of the Donegal Association.

*Article from Derry Journal Newspaper

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