Joseph Crilly (1962–2017) was an Irish playwright. Hailing from Derrymacash in

County Armagh County Armagh (, named after its county town, Armagh) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the southern shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and ha ...

, he lived for more than three decades in London, where he variously worked as an actor, journalist and

social worker Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social work ...

. He was arts editor of the '' Irish Post'' in the 1990s. He is best known for his trilogy of plays on

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United King ...

: ''Second-Hand Thunder'' (1998), its companion piece ''On McQuillan's Hill'' (2000) and ''Kitty & Damnation'' (2009). The three have been published together as ''The Crilly Trilogy''. ''On McQuillan's Hill'', which was originally staged at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast was revived at the Finborough Theatre in 2020, directed by

Jonathan Harden Jonathan Harden (born 1979) is an Irish actor and director. Early life Harden was born in Belfast in 1979, the son of an Irish father and American mother. Career Harden's most notable credits include the roles of Sean Rawlins in the crime drama ...

. The production received critical acclaim, including five stars from the

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and four stars from

The Stage ''The Stage'' is a British weekly newspaper and website covering the entertainment industry and particularly theatre. It was founded in 1880. It contains news, reviews, opinion, features, and recruitment advertising, mainly directed at those wh ...

. The Finborough production was an English premiere, and marked the twentieth anniversary of the play's Belfast debut. Following strong reviews, the four week run sold out. In May 2017, Crilly killed himself in a hotel room in

Perpignan Perpignan (, , ; ca, Perpinyà ; es, Perpiñán ; it, Perpignano ) is the prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France, in the heart of the plain of Roussillon, at the foot of the Pyrenees a few kilometres from the ...

.Irish Post
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crilly, Joe Male dramatists and playwrights from Northern Ireland 1962 births 2017 deaths 20th-century dramatists and playwrights from Northern Ireland 21st-century dramatists and playwrights from Northern Ireland 20th-century male writers from Northern Ireland 21st-century male writers from Northern Ireland Writers from County Armagh