John Guinan

Life
1874-1945; b. Ballindown, Birr, Co. Offaly; civil servant, working for Congested Dist. Board and Land Commission. Short stories, and four Abbey plays include The Cuckoo’s Nest (1913), The Plough Lifters (1916); Black Oliver (1927); The Rune of Healing (1931), involving convoluted dialogue; collaborated with George Fitzmaurice on The Wonderful Wedding, a conventional matchmaking piece rejected by the Abbey (publ. 1978); also Black Oliver publ. in One Act Plays for Stage and Study, fifth series (NY 1929) and Cuckoo’s Nest [Dublin 1933]. DIL

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Works
Wonderful Wedding
, in Journal of Irish Literature, 7, ‘George Fitzmaurice Special’ (Sept. 1978), pp.3-36 [which contains a photography of him with Fitzmaurice]. Plough Lifters and Cuckoo’s Nest were reviewed by W. J. Lawrence in The Stage, reviews rep. in JIL, XVIII (May-Sept 1989). Also contrib. “A Prayer to St. Anthony”, in The Shanachie, No. 5 (1907).

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