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The Arts Council Playography Na Gaeilge

People

Padraic Colum

1881 - 1972

Born Patrick Collumb in 1881 in Co. Longford, Padraic Colum was the firstborn of eight children. He received eight years of formal education at the Glasthule National School in Sandycove, Co. Dublin. In 1901 Colum joined the Gaelic League and the Irish Republican Army and began to call himself Padraic Colum. Colum's first published writings were poems which appeared in the Irish Independent and United Irishman in 1902. The first production of one of his plays occurred in 1903, with the Irish National Theatre Society's staging of 'Broken Soil' at Molesworth Hall. Colum became a member of the National Theatre Society and was an original signatory of the Abbey Theatre charter and wrote several plays for the theatre in its early years. Colum moved to the US in 1914, where he began writing children's literature; he also spent some time in France in the 1930s. During his lifetime Colum published over fifty books of poetry, fiction, drama, non fiction, children's literature, and folklore. Padraic Colum died in 1972 at the age of 90.

Playwriting Credits

Play Title Playwright
The Challengers Padraic Colum
The Fiddler's House Padraic Colum
The Land Padraic Colum
The Miracle of the Corn Padraic Colum
Thomas Muskerry Padraic Colum

Adaptations

Play Title Playwright
Grasshopper Padraic Colum Eduard Von Keyserling