| George Shiels was born in Co. Antrim, on 24th June 1881. He emigrated to America as a young man and worked on the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. In 1913 an accident left him confined to a wheelchair for life. He wrote his first play (under the pseudonym Geo Morshiels) Away from the Moss, which was staged by the Ulster Literary Theatre in 1918. Shiel's work attracted the attention of the Abbey Theatre, which staged his one-act comedy Bedmates in 1921. |
