Martin Lynch is a

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

and

theatre director A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance, drama, musical theatre performance, etc. by unifying various endeavors a ...

from

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

Life

Martin Lynch was born in the docks area of Belfast in 1950. He left school at 15 and became a cloth cutter, then a docker until 1973, when he became a full-time organiser for the

Republican Clubs The Workers' Party () is an Irish republican, Marxist–Leninist communist party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The party formerly asserted a claim of direct descent from the History of Sinn Féin, original Sinn F� ...

. In 1975, he organised a tour of community centres with

John Arden John Arden (26 October 1930 – 28 March 2012) was an English playwright who at his death was lauded as "one of the most significant British playwrights of the late 1950s and early 60s". Career Born in Barnsley, son of the manager of a glass ...

’s Non-Stop Connolly Show. This inspired Lynch to write plays himself.

Work

He co-founded the Turf Lodge Fellowship Community Theatre in 1976. Over the next five years, he wrote a series of plays including ''We Want Work, We Want Bread'' (1977), ''They’re Taking The Barricades Down'', ''What About Your Ma is Your Da Still Workin’?'', and ''A Roof Under Our Heads''. He then worked as a writer in residence with the

Lyric Theatre (Belfast) The Lyric Theatre, or simply The Lyric, is the principal, full-time producing theatre in Belfast, Northern Ireland. In January 2023 it won The Stage's Theatre of the Year award in recognition of "its programme...as well as for its online festiva ...

(1980-82). For the Lyric he wrote: ''Dockers'' (1981), a recreation of working-class life in Belfast’s Sailortown district. This was followed by ''The Interrogation of Ambrose Fogarty'' (1982), ''Castles in the Air'' (1983), and ''Minstrel Boys'' (1985). Lynch's plays have been performed throughout Ireland and in the UK, Europe and the USA. In 1983, along with Marie Jones he wrote 'Lay Up Your Ends' for Charabanc Theatre Co., based on the Belfast Mills girls strike of 1911. From 1985 - 88. he was Writer In Residence at the University Of Ulster, (Coleraine). In 1987 he wrote the screenplay for the Sam Goldwyn Hollywood movie 'A Prayer For The Dying' starring Mickey Rourke, Bob Hoskins and Liam Neeson (acting in his first feature film). In the 1990's Lynch wrote several plays for BBC Radio's 3 & 4, including 'The Clearance Of Audleystown', 'Needles and Pinsa' and 'Pictures Of Tomorrow' For the stage in this period he wrote, Northern Ireland's first large-scale Community Play, 'The Stone Chair', 'Rinty', Pictures Of Tomorrow and with Marie Jones & The Company 'The Wedding Community Play'. From 1994 - 2000, Lynch was Director of the ''Northern Ireland Community Arts Forum''. In 1994 Lynch drew up a paper proposing a cultural and arts quarter for the Donegall Street area of Belfast city centre north and presented it to the Department of Environment. He then brought together a representative committee and campaigned for three years to bring the quarter about. This eventually became the

Cathedral Quarter, Belfast The Cathedral Quarter () in Belfast, Northern Ireland, is a developing area of the city, roughly situated between Royal Avenue near where the Belfast Central Library building is, and the Dunbar Link in the city centre. From one of its corners, ...

the most visited part of Belfast. In an NVTV interview, Lynch described Cathedral Quarter as perhaps his greatest achievement. In 2002, Lynch founded the not-for-profit ''Green Shoot Productions'' to produce the work of working-class writers, writing about the working-class experience. Up to the present (2023), these have included: ''Chronicles Of Long Kesh'',(Lynch), ''Fly Me To The Moon'' (

Marie Jones Sarah Marie Jones (born 1951) is a Belfast-based actress and playwright. Born into a working-class Protestant family, Jones was an actress for several years before turning her hand to writing. Her plays have been staged on Broadway as well as ...

), ''Brothers In Arms'' (

Sam Millar Sam Millar (born 1955) is an Irish Republican activist, crime writer and playwright from Belfast, Northern Ireland. Millar joined the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) around the age of 15 after first seeing the events of Bloody Sunday an ...

), ''Paisley & Me'' ( Ron Hutchinson), ''1932 - The People Of Gallagher Street'' (Lynch &

Gary Mitchell Gary Mitchell (born 3 May 1965) is a Northern Irish playwright. By the 2000s, he had become "one of the most talked about voices in European theatre ... whose political thrillers have arguably made him Northern Ireland's greatest playwright". ...

), ''Two Sore Legs'' (

Brenda Murphy Brenda L. Murphy (born 1959) is a Canadian activist and politician who served as the 32nd lieutenant governor of New Brunswick, from 2019 to 2025.Alexander Quon"Brenda Murphy officially sworn in as lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick" Global ...

) and ''In The Name Of The Son'' (Lynch & Richard O'Rawe). IN 2003, along with Conor Grimes and Alan McKee, Lynch wrote what the critically acclaimed ''The History Of The Troubles''. This play has been performed at the

Grand Opera House, Belfast The Grand Opera House is a theatre in Belfast, Northern Ireland, designed by the most prolific theatre architect of the period, Frank Matcham. It opened on 23 December 1895. According to the Theatres Trust, the "magnificent auditorium is probabl ...

nine times. It also played at the

Tricycle Theatre The Kiln Theatre (formerly the Tricycle Theatre) is a theatre located in Kilburn, in the London Borough of Brent, England. Since 1980, the theatre has presented a wide range of plays reflecting the cultural diversity of the area, as well as n ...

, London and toured Ireland, clocking up audiences of over 120,000. Since ''Lay Up Your Ends'' in 1983, Lynch's collaboration with fellow playwright, Marie Jones has continued to be very successful with collaborations such as the aforementioned ''The Wedding Community Play'', ''Dancing Shoes - The George Best Story'' and ''The Miami Showband Story', both at the Grand Opera House and Irish and UK tours.

Published plays

* The Interrogation of Ambrose Fogarty & Castles in the Air by Martin Lynch (Blackstaff Press) * Lay Up Your Ends by Martin Lynch (Lagan Press) * The History of the Troubles (accordin' to my Da) by Martin Lynch, Conor Grimes & Alan McKee (Lagan Press) * Pictures of Tomorrow & Rinty by Martin Lynch (Lagan Press) * Dockers & Welcome to Bladonmore Road by Martin Lynch Lagan Press) * Chronicles of Long Kesh by Martin Lynch (Oberon Books)

Awards

* 2020: Elected member of

Aosdána Aosdána ( , ; from , 'people of the arts') is an Irish association or academy of artists, each of whom must have produced a distinguished body of work of genuine originality. It was created in 1981 by the country's Arts Council on the initiati ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lynch, Martin Irish dramatists and playwrights Theatre directors from Northern Ireland Writers from Belfast Living people 1950 births