David Ireland (author)

David Ireland was born in Lakemba in south-west Sydney in New South Wales in 1927.

Before taking up full-time writing in 1973, he undertook the classic writer's apprenticeship by working in a variety of jobs, ranging from greenskeeper to an extended period in the Silverwater oil refinery, on the river downstream of Parramatta.

This latter job inspired his second (and best-known) novel, The Unknown Industrial Prisoner, which brought him recognition in the early 1970s. Many critics still consider it one of the best and most original Australian novels of the period.

Ireland became a full time writer in his late 40s, and was a prolific novelist from the 1970s to the 1980s, winning the Miles Franklin Award three times (1971, 1976 and 1979). He is one of only four Australian writers to win the Award more than twice; the others are Thea Astley (4) and Tim Winton (4), and Peter Carey (3).

His work concentrates on "... sweeping existential issues and their impact on the lives of those oblivious to them... haunted by the plight of society’s underclasses and the great silence about them. Characters in his early novels are factory workers, the unemployed, the homeless, and those lost to alcohol or beset by mental illness." Van Ikin, 2022.{{cite web|title="Farewell to David Ireland, three-times Miles Franklin winner and master of mosaic fiction" |publisher= The Conversation|url=https://theconversation.com/farewell-to-david-ireland-three-times-miles-franklin-winner-and-master-of-mosaic-fiction-187938|access-date= 14 September 2024}}

In 1978, Film Australia offered government funding for a movie of The Unknown Industrial Prisoner. Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser's Home Affairs Minister, Bob Ellicott, intervened to stop this. This was seen as unwelcome political interference in a small but growing Australian film industry. The Glass Canoe was set as a NSW high-school text in 1982, but this attracted complaints.

Little is reported. He was married to Elizabeth Ruth Morris from 1955 to 1976, with two sons and two daughters. He married Christine Hayhoe in 1984.{{cite web|title="Ireland, David" |publisher= Encyclopedia.com|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/ireland-david|access-date= 14 September 2024}}

Ireland lived and died in New South Wales, Australia. He died on 26 July 2022 aged 94.{{cite news|url=https://www.smh.com.au/culture/books/david-ireland-giant-of-letters-and-three-time-miles-franklin-winner-dies-20220729-p5b5ou.html|title=David Ireland, 'giant of letters' and three-time Miles Franklin winner, dies|author=Jason Steger|date=29 July 2022|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald}}{{Cite web |date=2022-08-10 |title=David Neil Ireland – Death Notice |url=https://tributes.smh.com.au/obituaries/453583/david-neil-ireland/|access-date=2022-08-11 |website=The Sydney Morning Herald}}

• 1966 – winner The Advertiser Literary Competition for The Chantic Bird
• 1971 – winner Miles Franklin Award for The Unknown Industrial Prisoner{{cite web|title="Award" |publisher= The Canberra Times, 29 March 1972, p3|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article102206196|access-date= 14 September 2024}}
• 1976 – winner Miles Franklin Award for The Glass Canoe{{cite web|title="Author's third Miles Franklin" |publisher= The Canberra Times, 28 April 1976, p3|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article110960462|access-date= 14 September 2024}}
• 1979 – winner Miles Franklin Award for A Woman of the Future{{cite web|title="Miles Franklin Literary Award – Every Winner Since 1957" |publisher= Better Reading|url=https://www.betterreading.com.au:443/book_list/miles-franklin-literary-award-every-winner-since-1957/|access-date= 14 September 2024}}
• 1980 – joint winner The Age Book of the Year Award A Woman of the Future{{cite web|title="Authors share 'Age' award" |publisher= The Age, 29 November 1980, p23|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/2676337338|access-date= 14 September 2024|id= {{ProQuest|2676337338}}}}
• 1985 – winner Australian Literature Society Gold Medal for Archimedes and the Seagle{{cite web|title= ALS Gold Medal — Previous Winners |publisher= Association for the Study of Australian Literature|url= https://www.asal.org.au/awards/als-gold-medal/|access-date= 14 September 2024}}

He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the Queen's Birthday Honours of June 1981.{{cite news|date=13 June 1981|title=The Queen's Birthday Honours Lists – Commonwealth|volume=55|page=11|newspaper=The Canberra Times|issue=16,696|location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article125640658|access-date=30 July 2022|via=National Library of Australia}}{{Cite web|url=https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/870217|title=David Neil Ireland|website=honours.pmc.gov.au|access-date=2019-06-14}}

• The Chantic Bird (1968)
• The Unknown Industrial Prisoner (1971)
• The Flesheaters (1972)
• Burn (1974)
• The Glass Canoe (1976)
• A Woman of the Future (1979)
• City of Women (1981)
• Archimedes and the Seagle (1984)
• Bloodfather (1987)
• The Chosen (1997)
• The World Repair Video Game (2015)Heino, B. (2024). ‘Those who make no effort deserve no consideration’: Ecofascism in David Ireland’s The World Repair Video Game. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/25148486241258696

• Image in the Clay (1964)

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• {{cite journal|url=https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/JASAL/article/view/10038|author=Ron Leslie Blaber|title=The Populist Imaginary in David Ireland's The Unknown Industrial Prisoner and The Chosen|journal=Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature|volume=5|year=2006|ref=none}}
• [https://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/contributor/259425 David Ireland's Australian theatre credits] at AusStage

{{Miles Franklin Literary Award}}

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Category:1927 births

Category:2022 deaths

Category:Miles Franklin Award winners

Category:ALS Gold Medal winners

Category:Members of the Order of Australia

Category:Writers from New South Wales

Category:20th-century Australian novelists

Category:Australian male novelists