Roddy Doyle

Ellen McWilliams (University of Exeter)
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The writing of Roddy Doyle marks the beginning of a new and vital chapter in recent Irish literature. Doyle was born in Kilbarrack in Dublin in 1958 and trained and worked as a secondary school teacher in a nearby school from 1980 until the early 90s. He first came to notice with a popular comedy,

Brownbread

(1987), produced initially on a small inner-city stage, before transferring to one of the city's major commercial theatres. Roddy Doyle subsequently set up his own publishing company with a group of friends to publish his first novel,

The Commitments

(1987), a work that received major critical acclaim and whose initial popularity was further increased by Alan Parker's successful film adaptation of the novel. The excitement over

The Commitments

, and the subsequent installments in

The

2852 words

Citation: McWilliams, Ellen. "Roddy Doyle". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 August 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1309, accessed 19 March 2024.]

1309 Roddy Doyle 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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