Life
1888-1979 [John Bernard MacCarthy]; b. 24 June, Crosshaven; worked as postman in Crosshaven; 250 stories contributed to sundry magazines; active in amateur theatre; full-length plays incl. Kinship (Abbey 1913), occas. musical collaborations with B. MacCarthy; incl. The Land Where Dreams Come True (1952) and Ladies Take Your Partner (1953); The White Jackdaw (Gill [?1960]); contrib. numerous stories to CTS series incl. All on One Summer Day and Julia Josephine Goes First (1928), Annie All-Alone (1931), and Until Dawn (1931); full-length novels incl. Covert (1925), Possessions 1926) and Exile’s Bread (1927); his collected poems appeared as The Shadow of the Rose (1991). DIW IF2 DIL OCIL DIL
Works
Plays, Wrecked (Dublin: Gill 1912), one-act trag; The Sea-Call (Dublin: Talbot [1916]), one-act trag.; Crusaders (Dublin: Maunsel 1918), two-act play; The Romantic Lover (Dublin: Gill 1922), one-act com.; Cough Water (Dublin: Gill 1922), one-act farce; The Men in Possession (Dublin: Gill 1922), three-act farce; The Rising Generation (Duffy [1922]), three-act com.; The Able Dealer (Dublin: Gill 1928), three-act farce; The Down Express (Dublin: Gill 1928), three-act farce; Poachers (Dublin: Gill 1928), one-act com.; Fine Feathers (Dublin: Gill 1928), farc. sketch; The Long Road to Garranbraher (Dublin: Gill 1928), one-act play; Old Acquaintance (Dublin: Gill 1928), one-act farc. com.; Who Will Kiss Cinderella ([London]: George Roberts 1929), three-act com.; The Grain of the Wood (Dublin: Gill [1931]), three-act com.; The Valley Farm (Dublin: Gill [1931]), three-act dram.; Bridget’s Biddy (Dublin: Gill [1932]), one-act dram.; Dead Men's Shoes (Dublin: Duffy [1932]); Wheel of Fortune (Dublin: Gill [1932]), one-act com.; When A Man Marries (Dublin: Gill [1932]), two-act com.; The Missing Prince (Dublin: Gill [1934]), fairy play in four scenes; Plays (Dublin: Gill [1936]) [contains Watchers of the Dawn; Kinship; Green Leaves; Rolling Stones; Widows are So Fascinating; The Ugly Duckling; The Man from Mannarue]; Green Leaves (Dublin: Gill [1936]), one-act farce; The Man from Mannarue (Dublin: Gill [1936]), three-act com.; Rolling Stone (Dublin: Gill [1936]), one-act com.; The Playboy of the Seven Worlds (Dublin: Gill 1944), four-act com; The Duplicity of David (Dublin: Duffy 1945), one-act farce; The Gold Train (Dublin: Gill [1947]), farce-thriller in three acts; Crime Comes to Ballyconeen (Dublin: Gill [1947]), four-act dram.; Master of the House (Dublin: Gill [1950?]), three-act play; The Wide Open Spaces (Dublin: Duffy [1950?]), one-act com.; The Town Museum (Dublin: Duffy [1950?]), one-act farce; Fair Play’s Bonnie Play (Belfast: Carter 1951), one-act com.; The Land Where Dreams Come True (Dublin: Gill 1952), one-act com., with music and lyrics by B. Walsh MacCarthy; Ladies Take Your Partners (Belfast: Carter 1953), two-act com., with music and lyrics by B. Walsh MacCarthy; Mister Storm Along (Dublin: Gill 1960), one-act drama; The White Jackdaw (Dublin: Gill [1960?]), one-act com.
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Novels, Covert (London: Hutchinson [1925]); Possessions (London: Hutchinson [1926]); Exile’s Bread (London: Hutchinson [1927]) (x), [1]-316pp. Poems, The Shadow of the Rose (Dublin: Talbot 1919).
Stories [all published by Catholic Truth Society/CTS], All on One Summer Day and Julia Josephine Goes First (Dublin: CTS [1928]); Heirs at Law and Donny Takes a Wife (Dublin: CTS [1928]); The Crossing and The Six Months' Corner (Dublin: CTS [1929]); The Life of Trade and At the Show (Dublin: CTS [1929]); A Marriage of Convenience and The Betrayal (Dublin: CTS [1929[); Rope Enough and Julia Muad Goes to the Races and The Passing of the Torch (Dublin: CTS [1929]); The Valuation and A Musical Interlude (Dublin: CTS [1929]); Verbatim and The End of a Holiday (Dublin: CTS [1929]); Wheels of Fortune and Those Who Smile before Dawn (Dublin: CTS [1929]); The Wooing of Michael and His Royal Highness (Dublin: CTS [1929]); Andy Takes an Outing (Dublin: CTS [1930]); Annie All-Alone (Dublin: CTS [1931]); Easy Money (Dublin: CTS [1931]); The Fiddle Men (Dublin: CTS [1931]); The Partition (Dublin: CTS [1931]); A Test of Intelligence (Dublin: CTS [1931]); Until Dawn (Dublin: CTS [1931]); Over Cassidy's Counter (Dublin: CTS [1932]); A Change in Partners and A Midsummer Knight's Dream (Dublin: CTS 1935); The White Souls and A St. Patrick's Day Presentation and The Sweeterie (Dublin: CTS 1935); Murtagh's Monument and The Skipper Strikes his Flag (Dublin: CTS 1936); A Disgrace to the Parish and A Quiet One (Dublin: CTS [1937]); Old Times and Toys (Dublin: CTS [1937]); You Might Call it a Day (Dublin: CTS 1948).
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References
Desmond Clarke, Ireland in Fiction [Pt II] (Cork: Royal Carbery 1985) lists Exile’s Bread (1927); Possessions ([1925]); Convert ([1924]), QRY title and date [cf. DIL].
Robert Hogan, ed., Dictionary of Irish Literature (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1979), staples of Cork realism, land-hunger and respectability; plays, Wrecked (1922), The Sea-Call (1917); The Long Road to Garranbraher (1928); Crusaders (1918), in which Fr. Tom chooses between his temperance campaign and his father’s pub; Kinship (1914), The Supplanter (1914), Crusaders, and Garranbraher, at Abbey. Sea-Call deals with man in love with the sea, and a childless wife. Farces include Dead Men’s Shoes (1919), for amateur companies.
Eggeley Catalogue (No. 44) lists Exile’s Bread, A Novel (Hutchinson 1927) (x), [1]-316pp., dated Spring 1927.
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