Una Troy
{{Short description|Irish novelist (1910–1993)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}
{{Use Irish English|date=January 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Una Troy
| birth_date = 21 May 1910 (some sources give 1913)
| birth_place = Fermoy, County Cork, Ireland
| death_date = 27 September 1993
| death_place = Bonmahon, Ireland
| nationality = Irish
| occupation = Novelist and playwright
| relatives = Seán Keating (brother-in-law)
}}
Una Troy Walsh (21 May 1910 – 27 September 1993) was an Irish novelist and playwright who wrote under the names Elizabeth Connor and Una Troy.
Early life
Troy was born in Fermoy, County Cork,{{Cite news|last=Owen|first=Emma Mae|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47662382/both-tears-and-laughter-found-in-we/|title=Both Tears and Laughter Found in 'We Are Seven'|date=1957-03-24|work=The Jackson Sun|access-date=2020-03-30|pages=29|via=Newspapers.com}} the daughter of John S. Troy and Brigid Agnes Hayes. Her father was a lawyer and a judge. Her sister Gráinne (or Grania, 1913–1970) was a musician, and her sister Shevaun (1923–1993) was a poet.Butler, Ann M. [https://www.nli.ie/pdfs/mss%20lists/troyu.pdf Collection List for Una Troy Papers]. National Library of Ireland. She was educated at the Loreto Convent in Rathfarnham, Dublin.{{Cite web |last=Welch |first=Robert |date=2003 |orig-date=2000 |title=Una Troy |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803105904457 |access-date=2020-03-30 |website=The Concise Oxford Companion to Irish Literature |language=en |isbn=9780192800800}}
Career
= Before and during World War II =
Writing under the pen name of "Elizabeth Connor",{{Cite book|last=Walsh|first=I.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BiMqiOVPp8EC&q=Una+Troy&pg=PA74|title=Experimental Irish Theatre: After W.B. Yeats|date=2012-03-13|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1-137-00136-8|language=en}}{{Cite book|last=O'Reilly|first=Terence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E-sl4wW6KwcC&q=%22Elizabeth+Connor%22+Rebel+Heart&pg=PA220|title=Rebel Heart: George Lennon : Flying Column Commander|date=2009|publisher=Mercier Press Ltd|isbn=978-1-85635-649-7|pages=220–224|language=en}} she began her career in 1936 with the publication of the novel Mount Prospect, which was banned in the Irish Free State.{{cite web|url=http://www.ucd.ie/scholarcast/transcripts/four_nations_feminism.pdf|title= Four Nations Feminism: Una Troy and Menna Gallie|last= Connolly|first=Claire|date=Spring 2010|publisher=UCDscholarcast|pages=3|access-date=16 December 2011}} Adapted as a play, it garnered the Shaw Prize for new playwrights and was performed on the Abbey stage in 1940. Two subsequent plays by Troy Swans and Geese and An Apple a Day, were also performed at the Abbey in the early 1940s.{{cite book|last=Leland|first=Mary|title=The lie of the land: journeys through literary Cork |publisher=Cork University Press|year=1999|pages=161|isbn=978-1-85918-231-4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PL1YhI3Rp1cC&q=%22Una+Troy%22+born+fermoy&pg=PA161|access-date=2011-12-16}}[http://www.irishplayography.com/person.aspx?personid=39303 "People: Elizabeth Connor"] Irish Playography.
In 1938, Dead Star's Light was published. The protagonist, John Davern, was based on the character of IRA revolutionary idealist George Lennon of West Waterford. While not banned, it did elicit censure from Troy's parish priest in Clonmel. Dead Star's Light was performed on the Abbey stage in 1947 as The Dark Road.
= After World War II =
In the post-World War II period Troy wrote more fifteen novels, under her own name. Miss Maggie and the Doctor (1958) was considered "as Irish as the shamrock" with "a unique exuberance and charm".{{Cite news|last=Owen|first=Emma Mae|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47662148/una-troys-gay-novels-continue-to-charm/|title=Una Troy's Gay Novels Continue to Charm Readers|date=1958-08-17|work=The Jackson Sun|access-date=2020-03-30|pages=11|via=Newspapers.com}} Kirkus Reviews described her 1959 novel The Other End of the Bridge as "Funny in its presentation but not in its intent," adding that Troy "points up universal problems in microcosm, and stirs its Irish stew with a sturdy ladle."{{Cite web|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/una-troy-4/the-other-end-of-the-bridge/|title=The Other End of the Bridge|date=4 January 1960|website=Kirkus Reviews|language=en|access-date=2020-03-30}}
Troy's 1955 novel, We Are Seven, was adapted as a film, She Didn't Say No! (1958), for which she was the co-writer.{{Cite web |title=She Didn't Say No |url=https://ifi.ie/film/she-didnt-say-no-3/ |access-date=2020-03-30 |website=Irish Film Institute |language=en}} Because of its portrayal of illegitimacy, the film was not released in Ireland until a film copy was retrieved in 2001 at the Irish Film Archive. It was shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2005, as part of an international film preservation festival.{{Cite web|url=http://www.iftn.ie/news/?act1=record&only=1&aid=73&rid=1247&tpl=archnews&force=1|title=MOMA To Screen Restored 'She Didn't Say No!'|date=1 April 2005|website=The Irish Film & Television Network|access-date=2020-03-30}} Thanks to the European initiative 'A Season of Classic Films'{{Cite book|last=|url=https://ace-film.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/A-Season-of-Classic-Films_Programme-catalogue.pdf|title=A Season of Classic Films: Programme Catalogue|publisher=ACE – Association des Cinémathèques Européennes|year=2020|editor-last=Reizi|editor-first=Paulina|location=Amsterdam, the Netherlands}}{{Cite web|title=A Season of Classic Films|url=https://ace-film.eu/projects/season-of-classics/|access-date=12 April 2021|website=Association des Cinémathèques Européennes (ACE)}} of the Association des Cinémathèques Européennes (ACE), the film has been digitised in early 2021 and made possible to release online with an introduction on the film’s preservation and history.{{Cite web|last=Reizi|first=Paulina|title=A Season of Classic Films: She Didn't Say No!|url=https://ace-film.eu/a-season-of-classic-films-she-didnt-say-no/|access-date=12 April 2021|website=ACE – Association des Cinémathèques Européennes}}
Selected publications
- Mount Prospect (also known as No House of Peace, 1936)
- Dead Star's Light (1938)
- We Are Seven (1955){{Cite book|last=Troy|first=Una|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NoiCOwAACAAJ|title=We are Seven|date=1990|publisher=Chivers|isbn=978-0-86220-607-9|language=en}}
- Miss Maggie and the Doctor (also known as Maggie, 1958){{Cite book|last=Troy|first=Una|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XLA_HaWQ-FAC|title=Miss Maggie and the Doctor|date=1958|publisher=Dutton|language=en}}{{Cite web|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1958/06/29/110080354.html|title=Dr. Bill's Housekeeper|last=Cobb|first=Jane|date=29 June 1958|website=New York Times|language=en|access-date=2020-03-30}}
- The Workhouse Graces (also known as The Graces of Ballykeen, 1959){{Cite news|last=Minick|first=Elaine I.|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47662552/sisters-in-paupers-home-find-riches-in/|title=Sisters in Paupers' Home Find Riches in Friendship|date=1960-01-10|work=Chattanooga Daily Times|access-date=2020-03-30|pages=16|via=Newspapers.com}}
- The Other End of the Bridge (1960){{Cite book|last=Troy|first=Una|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XrJSxAEACAAJ|title=The Other End of the Bridge|date=1960|publisher=Heinemann|language=en}}{{Cite news|last=Johnson|first=C. W.|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47662718/irish-feuding-becomes-frolicc-w/|title=Irish Feuding Becomes Frolic|date=1961-01-08|work=Springfield Leader and Press|access-date=2020-03-30|pages=27|via=Newspapers.com}}
- Esmond (1962){{Cite news|last=Burns|first=G. Frank|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47662804/trigamyg-frank-burns/|title=Trigamy|date=1962-07-22|work=The Tennessean|access-date=2020-03-30|pages=32|via=Newspapers.com}}
- The Brimstone Halo (also known as The Prodigal Father, 1965){{Cite news|last=B. H. H.|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47662647/prodigal-father-returns-to-family-he/|title='Prodigal Father' Returns to Family He Left Behind|date=1965-03-21|work=The Anniston Star|access-date=2020-03-30|pages=16|via=Newspapers.com}}
- The Benefactors (1969)
- The Castle Nobody Wanted (1970)
- Tiger Puss (1970)
- Doctor Go Home (1973)
- Out of Everywhere (1976)
- Caught in the Furze (1977)
- A Sack of Gold (1979)
- So True a Fool (1981)
Personal life
In 1931, Una Troy married Joseph C. Walsh of Bonmahon, who served as physician to the Irish Republican Army (IRA),{{cite book|last=O'Reilly|first=Terence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E-sl4wW6KwcC&q=%22Una+Troy%22&pg=PA220|title=Rebel Heart: George Lennon: Flying Column Commander|publisher=Mercier Press Ltd|year=2009|isbn=978-1-85635-649-7|pages=220|access-date=2011-12-16}} and later as a coroner. Her sister-in-law May Walsh was married to Irish artist Seán Keating. The couple lived in Clonmel for most of their lives together, and had a daughter, Janet (1932–2002). Una Troy was widowed when Dr. Walsh died in 1969, and she died in 1993 in Bonmahon, County Waterford. Many of her papers are in the collection of the National Library of Ireland.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.unatroy.info Una Troy], a website run by Troy biographer and archivist Ann M. Butler.
- {{IMDb name|id=0873914}}
- Claire Connolly, "Scholarcast 19: Four Nations Feminism: Una Troy and Menna Gallie", an audio program from University College Dublin.
- [https://www.rte.ie/archives/2017/0228/856053-times-changing-in-clonmel/ "Clonmel at Crossroads of Change"] (16 March 1967), an episode of the RTÉ series Discovery, featuring Una Troy.
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Category:20th-century Irish novelists
Category:20th-century Irish women writers
Category:20th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights
Category:Writers from County Cork
Category:Irish women novelists
Category:Irish women dramatists and playwrights
Category:Writers from County Waterford