Una Troy

Life
1910-1993; [pseud. “Elizabeth Connor” up to the 1950s]; b. 21 May 1910, Fermoy, Co. Cork; dg. John & Bridget [née Hayes]; m. Joseph C.Walsh; settled in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary; first novel Mount Prospect (1936), banned in Ireland but adapted as a play and produced at Abbey (Dublin), winning the Shaw 1st Prize in 1940; further plays as Swans and Geese (1941); Apple A Day (1942); and Dark Road (1947), adapted from Dead Star's Light (1938), a novel; author of num. novels incl. lists We Are Seven (1955), filmed as She Didn't Say No, entered for Britain in Brussels World Film Festival, 1958, but banned in Ireland; issued Maggie (1958); The Workhouse Graces (1959); Caught in the Furze (1977), novels light and satirical; she was a member of the Society of Authors and P.E.N.; her papers are held in the National Library of Ireland. IF2 DIW

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Works
Novels
  • [As Elizabeth Connor], Mount Prospect (London: Methuen 1936), in US as No House of Peace (1937)
  • Dead Star's Light (London: Methuen 1938); Maggie (London: Heinemann 1958) [in US as Miss Maggie and the Doctor]
  • The Workhouse Graces (London: Heinemann 1960) [in US as Graces of Ballykeen]
  • The Other End of the Bridge (London: Heinemann 1960)
  • Esmond (London: Hodder & Stoughton 1962)
  • The Brimstone Halo ([London:] Henry Hornbuth 1965) [in US as The Prodigal Father].
  • The Benefactors (London: Hale 1969).
  • The Castle Nobody Wanted (London: Hale 1970).
  • Tiger Puss (London: Hale 1970).
  • Stop Press (London: Hale 1971).
  • Doctor Go Home (London: Hale 1973).
  • Out of Everywhere (London: Hale1976).
  • Caught in the Furze (London: Hale 1977).
  • A Sack of Gold (London: Hale 1979).
  • So True a Fool (London: Hale; NY: Dutton 1981).
Short fiction
  • [as Elizabeth Connor]. “The White Gloves”, Ireland Today (Sept. 1937).
  • “The Apple” in The Bell (Oct. 1942).
  • [As Una Troy,] We Are Seven (London Heinemann 1955 );
  • “The Best Butte”, in Kilkenny Magazine (Spring-Summer 1966).
Unpublished

“Fly By These Nets”, an unpublished MS, trans. into German as Das Meer ist Music (Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag 2001).

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References
Brian Cleeve & Ann Brady, A Dictionary of Irish Writers [rev. 1 vol. edn.] (Dublin: Lilliput 1985) lists novels We Are Seven (1955); Maggie (1958), The Workhouse Graces (1959) and Caught in the Furze (1977), calling them light and satirical.

Ann Butler has developed an Una Troy Website [link] - the source of much bio-bibliographical information given here, with additional remarks: ‘Following her death [...] her daughter Janet Helleris found an unpublished manuscript “Fly By These Nets” [... &c.]; incls. photo. port. [... &c.]

Mairín Ní Dhonnchadha, et al., eds., The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing, Volumes 4 & 5 (Cork UP 2002), incls. “The Apple”.

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