Barry Devlin (born 27 November 1946) is an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

musician, screen writer and director.

Early life

Devlin is from Moortown in

Ardboe Ardboe () is a large parish civil parish in east County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It borders the western shore of Lough Neagh and lies within the Mid Ulster District Council area. It is also the name of the local civil parish, which incorporate ...

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an administrative division for local government but retain ...

. He initially began to train as a

Columban Columbanus ( ga, Columbán; 543 – 21 November 615) was an Irish missionary notable for founding a number of monasteries after 590 in the Frankish and Lombard kingdoms, most notably Luxeuil Abbey in present-day France and Bobbio Abbey in p ...

priest, but left to study English at

University College Dublin University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland ...

and then joined a graphics company as a screenwriter.

Career

He was in the pioneering Irish

Celtic rock Celtic rock is a genre of folk rock, as well as a form of Celtic fusion which incorporates Celtic music, instrumentation and themes into a rock music context. It has been extremely prolific since the early 1970s and can be seen as a key foundatio ...

band

Horslips Horslips are an Irish Celtic rock band that compose, arrange and perform songs frequently inspired by traditional Irish airs, jigs and reels. The group are regarded as 'founding fathers of Celtic rock' for their fusion of traditional Irish mu ...

as bass player, vocalist and front man. After the breakup of Horslips, Devlin released the 1983 solo album ''Breaking Star Codes''. Horslips reunited from 2004 - 2006, and again from 2009 - 2019. He has directed for the screen, producing a number of U2 videos in the 1980s. He has also been a writer for radio and screen, originating the radio detective drama '' Baldi'' and writing episodes for the television series ''

Ballykissangel ''Ballykissangel'' is a BBC television drama created by Kieran Prendiville and set in Ireland, produced in-house by BBC Northern Ireland. The original story revolved around a young English Roman Catholic priest as he became part of a rural co ...

'' and '' The Darling Buds of May'' and the screenplay for the film '' A Man of No Importance'' (1994). He wrote the screenplays for the five episodes of the television series ''

My Mother and Other Strangers ''My Mother and Other Strangers'' is a 2016 British television drama series, written by Barry Devlin, made by BBC Northern Ireland with funding from Northern Ireland Screen. The story is set in a small village in Northern Ireland in 1943, during ...

'', which aired in 2016. He co-wrote with Paul J Bolger ''Hound'', a 3-volume comic book retelling of the

Ulster Cycle The Ulster Cycle ( ga, an Rúraíocht), formerly known as the Red Branch Cycle, is a body of medieval Irish heroic legends and sagas of the Ulaid. It is set far in the past, in what is now eastern Ulster and northern Leinster, particularly count ...

that got limited release from 2014 to 2018 before

Dark Horse A dark horse is a previously lesser-known person or thing that emerges to prominence in a situation, especially in a competition involving multiple rivals, or a contestant that on paper should be unlikely to succeed but yet still might. Origin Th ...

published an

omnibus edition An omnibus edition or omnibus is a creative work containing one or more works by the same or, more rarely, different authors. Commonly two or more components have been previously published as books but a collection of shorter works, or shorter wo ...

Family

His sister, Marie Devlin, is a school teacher and writer, who published ''Over Nine Waves'', a collection of traditional Irish myths and legends, in 1994. She was married to the Nobel laureate

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

, from 1965 until the poet's death in 2013. One of his six sisters is

Polly Devlin Polly Devlin OBE (born 1944) is a writer and Irish broadcaster. Biography She was born in Ardboe, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, then a remote area without telephones or electricity. She left for London after winning the ''Vogue'' magazine ...

, the writer and broadcaster, who was awarded the OBE for services to literature. Her first book, ''All Of Us There'', is now a Virago Modern Classic. She made a documentary film ''The Daisy Chain'' and now is a professor at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

, New York.

References

External links

*
BBC Northern Ireland Drama - ''Baldi'' series 3
{{DEFAULTSORT:Devlin, Barry 1946 births Living people Musicians from County Tyrone Screenwriters from Northern Ireland Male writers from Northern Ireland Television writers from Northern Ireland Alumni of University College Dublin People educated at St Patrick's Grammar School, Armagh British male television writers