Brian Moore - the Donegal connection [2005]
Regarded by many as one of the finest novelists of his time, Belfast-born Brian Moore left Ireland a young man, and spent more than fifty years in Canada and the US. However, as Martin McGinley found out (belatedly), he had strong links with Donegal.
The great Brian Moore and the Donegal connection
So I mention to Muriel that I’m doing an article about Brian Moore, the writer, and she says, “His mother was from Donegal, wasn’t she?”
It seems that the world has been aware for some time that the man regarded as one of the great Irish novelists had Donegal connections and, even better, Creeslough connections. If only I’d known that when I saw him read in a lecture theatre in Queen’s University in Belfast, more than ten years ago. I could have asked him something original, like about the influence of Creeslough on his work. Instead, I asked him if he’d thought about coming back to live in Belfast.
I mean, the man lived in Malibu at the time.
He died there in January, 1999, which was a shame for people like myself who waited for his new novel every two years or so. It was hard to believe there would never be another Brian Moore book.
But he had a long publishing career. His first novel, ‘The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne’, from 1955, is probably still the one he’s best known for. Four others were also made into films – ‘The Luck of Ginger Coffey’, ‘Catholics’, ‘Cold Heaven’ and ‘Black Robe’.
He won many literary prizes, and was shortlisted three times for the Booker Prize.
He also worked with Alfred Hitchcock, writing the screenplay for ‘Torn Curtain’, starring Paul Newman and Julie Andrews. It’s not really regarded as a classic, but Brian liked to take the credit for a particularly drawn-out – and famous - murder scene. He told Hitchcock he had learned from his father, a doctor, that “people didn’t always die as quickly as they did in movies.” Hitchcock took him at his word.
Duntally Lodge
The story of Brian Moore’s Donegal connection
The great Brian Moore and the Donegal connection
So I mention to Muriel that I’m doing an article about Brian Moore, the writer, and she says, “His mother was from Donegal, wasn’t she?”
It seems that the world has been aware for some time that the man regarded as one of the great Irish novelists had Donegal connections and, even better, Creeslough connections. If only I’d known that when I saw him read in a lecture theatre in Queen’s University in Belfast, more than ten years ago. I could have asked him something original, like about the influence of Creeslough on his work. Instead, I asked him if he’d thought about coming back to live in Belfast.
I mean, the man lived in Malibu at the time.
He died there in January, 1999, which was a shame for people like myself who waited for his new novel every two years or so. It was hard to believe there would never be another Brian Moore book.
But he had a long publishing career. His first novel, ‘The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne’, from 1955, is probably still the one he’s best known for. Four others were also made into films – ‘The Luck of Ginger Coffey’, ‘Catholics’, ‘Cold Heaven’ and ‘Black Robe’.
He won many literary prizes, and was shortlisted three times for the Booker Prize.
He also worked with Alfred Hitchcock, writing the screenplay for ‘Torn Curtain’, starring Paul Newman and Julie Andrews. It’s not really regarded as a classic, but Brian liked to take the credit for a particularly drawn-out – and famous - murder scene. He told Hitchcock he had learned from his father, a doctor, that “people didn’t always die as quickly as they did in movies.” Hitchcock took him at his word.
Duntally Lodge
The story of Brian Moore’s Donegal connection