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Joseph Tomelty

{{Short description|Irish actor, playwright and novelist (1911–1995)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox person

| image = Joseph_Tomelty.jpg

| name = Joseph Tomelty

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1911|3|5|df=y}}

| birth_place = Portaferry, County Down, Ireland

| death_date = {{death date and age|1995|6|7|1911|3|5|df=y}}

| death_place = Belfast, Northern Ireland

| occupation = {{hlist|Actor|playwright|novelist|manager|short-story writer}}

| yearsactive = 1947–1964

| spouse = {{marriage|Lena Milligan
|1942}}

| children = 2, including Frances Tomelty

| family = Joe Sumner
(grandson)

}}

Joseph Tomelty (5 March 1911 – 7 June 1995){{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-joseph-tomelty-1586249.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220617/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-joseph-tomelty-1586249.html |archive-date=17 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=OBITUARY:Joseph Tomelty|author=Damian Smyth|work=The Independent|date=12 June 1995}} was an Irish actor, playwright, novelist, short-story writer and theatre manager. He worked in film, television, radio and on the stage,{{cite news | first=Damian | last=Smyth | title=Tomelty Country | work=Celebrating Strangford Lough | page= 1 | date=November 2008 }} starring in Sam Thompson's 1960 play Over the Bridge.

Life and career

Born in Portaferry in 1911, he was the son of James Tomelty, a skilled fiddler who was nicknamed "Rollicking"; and the brother of Peter Tomelty, a tenor and recording artist. Tomelty's exposure to music at a young age influenced his work as a playwright, with several of his stage works being named after songs, including The Singing Bird (1948), Down the Heather Glen (1953) and The Drunken Sailor (1954).

Tomelty was a co-founder, in 1940,of the Group Theatre in Belfast, and served as its general manager until 1951.{{Cite web |last=The Dictionary of Ulster Biography |title=Joseph Tomelty (1911 - 1995): Writer, actor and playwright |url=https://www.newulsterbiography.co.uk/index.php/home/viewPerson/1796 |access-date=2024-02-16 |website=www.newulsterbiography.co.uk}}

He married Lena Milligan in 1942.https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituaryjoseph-to melty-1586249.html

They had two daughters together: Frances Tomelty is an actress and the first wife of singer and musician Sting; while Roma Tomelty (d. 22 April 2020) was also an actress.

Works

=Plays=

  • Barnum Was Right (1939)
  • Idolatry at Inishargie (1942)
  • Poor Errand (1943)
  • Right Again Barnum (1943)
  • The End House (1944)
  • All Souls' Night (1948)
  • The Singing Bird (1948)
  • Down the Heather Glen (1953)
  • April in Assagh (1954)
  • The Drunken Sailor (1954)
  • Is the Priest at Home? (1954)
  • A Year in Marlfield (1965)

=Novels=

  • Red Is the Port Light (1948)
  • The Apprentice (1953)

=Radio=

  • Barnum Is Right (1938)
  • Elopement (1939)
  • The McCooeys (1948)

=Complete filmography=

{{Div col}}

{{div col end}}

''The McCooeys''

Tomelty's family-based radio sitcom The McCooeys was first broadcast on the BBC Home Service in Northern Ireland on 14 May 1949, becoming the region's most listened-to programme over the next six years. Centre Stage Theatre Company, co-founded by his daughter Roma and her husband Colin Carnegie, revived four of the episodes in a stage version, directed by Michael Quinn and performed in the refurbished Grand Opera House Studio Theatre in February 2022.

References

{{reflist}}

External links

  • {{IMDb name|id=0866627}}
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20081025212719/http://www.portaferry.info/JosephTomelty.html Portaferry - Joseph Tomelty Resource Page]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tomelty, Joseph}}

Category:1911 births

Category:1995 deaths

Category:People from Portaferry

Category:Male stage actors from Northern Ireland

Category:Male dramatists and playwrights from Northern Ireland

Category:20th-century dramatists and playwrights from Northern Ireland

Category:20th-century male actors from Northern Ireland

Category:20th-century novelists from Northern Ireland

Category:Male novelists from Northern Ireland

Category:20th-century British male writers

Category:Actors from County Down

Category:Writers from County Down