Patrick Galvin:

An Inventory of His Papers at the Burns Library, Boston College

Biography of Patrick Galvin

Playwright, poet and ballad singer Patrick Galvin was born in Cork City, Ireland, on either April 15th or August 15th, 1927 or possibly 1929 or later. Galvin's date of birth remains uncertain as his mother changed the date on his birth certificate so that he could more easily find employment. Galvin was only formally educated to the age of eleven by the Christian Brothers and spent three of his early teenage years in prison in a reformatory outside Cork. Later he worked in London and in a Kibbutz in Israel. All his dramatic and poetic work draws heavily on his experience as a ballad singer and his knowledge of Irish folk music. Galvin recorded several collections of Irish ballads and wrote Irish Songs of Resistance: 1169-1923 (1962) as well as lectured on Irish folk music in the former East Germany. His plays have been produced in Dublin, Belfast and London. In the early 1960s Cry the Believers and And Him Stretched were staged in Dublin and later he began a productive association with the Lyric Players Theatre in Belfast through a Leverhulme Fellowship in Drama in the 1970s. In Belfast Galvin brought to the stage The Last Burning (1974), We Do It For Love (1975), and My Silver Bird. He also edited The Lyric Players Theatre's literary journal, Threshold, for a short period. Galvin's poems have been collected in Man on the Porch (1979) and Folk Tales for the General (1989).

Scope and Contents of the Papers

Consists primarily of manuscript copies of several plays by Galvin. Also includes manuscripts of a radio play, as well as a number of poems. There are also theater programs and notices relating to Galvin's plays, and a piece of artwork.

Restrictions

No restrictions on access.

Administrative Information

Processing Information

Processed by Mark Roskoski, August 1994.

Detailed Description of the Collection