(from the Irish Times, 10/2.)
Brian Friel, who has died aged 86, was the best-known Irish playwright of his generation. His first major play, Philadelphia, Here I Come!, was the hit of the 1964 Dublin Theatre Festival, and Dancing at Lughnasa, probably his most successful play, in 1992 won three Tony Awards.
Friel was also an accomplished short-story writer, belonging to the great tradition of Irish storytelling stretching from William Carleton, in the 19th century, through George Moore and Frank O’Connor to William Trevor today. And he was a founder of Field Day Theatre Company.
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