Maurice Walsh

Maurice Walsh (21 April 1879 – 18 February 1964) was an Irish novelist, now best known for his short story "The Quiet Man", later made into the Oscar-winning film The Quiet Man, directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara. He was one of Ireland's best-selling authors in the 1930s. A new musical based on his novel, Castle Gillian, is currently in development by Kate Forsyth (Book), Victor Kazan (Lyrics) and Kevin Purcell (Music) 2Life Maurice Walsh was born on or about 21 April 1879, in the townland of Ballydonoghue, near Listowel, County Kerry, Ireland. He was the third of ten children and the first son born to John Walsh, a local farmer, and his wife, Elizabeth Buckley, who lived in a three-roomed thatched farmhouse. His father was politically involved in the National Land League but his main interests were books and horses and he employed others to work the farm. One of these farmhands was called Paddy Bawn Enright, whose name was later used in the short story "The Quiet Man", although it was changed for the movie version. John Walsh passed on to his son a love of books, as well as Irish legends and folk tales and the theory of place which features in much of his work. Walsh produced some 20 novels, plus a large number of short stories, many set in Scotland or the West of Ireland and containing a mix of drama and romance. Much of his work invoked a rural Ireland that was fast disappearing in the 1930s and while little read today, at the time they proved immensely popular, being translated into Italian, Danish, French, German and Flemish.In 1908, he married Caroline Begg, always referred to by her nickname "Toshon", who came from Dufftown, Banffshire, in Scotland; they had three sons, Ian, Neil and Maurice, and two daughters, Molly and Elizabeth, both of whom died young. One of his grandsons is Irish painter Manus Walsh, while the novelist Alison Walsh is his great-granddaughte