Frank McGuinness to get Home Town Honour

Buncrana is to honour one of its most famous sons, playwright Frank McGuinness.. Local councillors will decide on a date to honour the 57-year-old award-winning playwright and poet with a Civic Reception at their monthly meeting this Thursday. Mayor Cllr Lee Tedstone said he was delighted to be able to bestow the honour during his tenure as the town’s First Citizen. He said: “Frank McGuinness is one of Ireland’s best known and most successful playwrights and it is only fitting and proper that his achievements be recognised by his home town. It will be an honour for me as Mayor of Buncrana to host the civic reception in his honour.” McGuinness first came to prominence in 1982 with his play “The Factory Girls,” based on the experiences of his mother and aunts. He established his reputation three years later with “Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme,” his First World War dramatisation of the lives of a group of Protestant soldiers as they made their inexorable way to the horror of July 1, 1916. Staged in Dublin’s Abbey Theatre and internationally, it won numerous awards including the “London Evening Standard” “Award for Most Promising Playwright.” However, his most famous play is “Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me.” First performed in 1992, it is based loosely on the experiences of Brian Keenan and other hostages in Lebanon. He has also written new versions of classic dramas, including works by Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekhov, and Euripides, adapting the literal translations of others. In addition, he wrote the screenplay for the film “Dancing at Lughnasa,” adapted from the stage play by Brian Friel. McGuinness’s first poetry anthology, “Booterstown,” was published in 1994 and several of his poems have been recorded by Marianne Faithfull, including “Electra,” “After the Ceasefire” and “The Wedding.” However, theatre is where he belongs. He once said: “It may drive me crazy and drive me hard, but I am never happier than when I am writing a play. Theatre is where I should be. I love the thrill of these voices becoming my familiars; I love their company, or am threatened by their company. That’s a tremendous, joyous thing, and when it is happening it completely dominates my life: everything else is a sideline.” After being educated locally, McGuinness attended University College Dublin, where he studied Pure English and Medieval Studies to post-graduate level. A one-time lecturer in Linguistics and Drama at the University of Ulster, Medieval Studies at University College, Dublin and English at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, he was a writer-in-residence lecturing at University College Dublin before being appointed Professor of Creative Writing in the School of English, Drama and Film at University College Dublin.