Hugh Leonard

Leonard was an Irish writer, journalist and playwright, who was born in Dalkey, near Dublin in 1926.  His mother was unmarried and had put him up for adoption.

 His birth name was John Joseph Byrne, and he was known as Jack... but he was adopted by a working class couple, Nicholas and Margaret Keyes and took their name.  However when he started writing plays, he used the name Hugh Leonard.  His adoptive parents were simple people, who had not been able to have children... and their marriage was often stormy.  His father was a gardener.  Jack was a bright young boy and won a scholarship to a better school, the Presentation College, in Glasthule.  He did not do that well academically there, however and realized that he was not likely to get into one of the professions.  He left school and went to work in the Irish Civil Service.  He and his friends escaped from the narrowness of life in 1940s and 1950’s Ireland, by attending the cinema a lot.

On joining the Civil Service, he realized that he had walked into a trap, in that it was dull, with few prospects, and feared that he would be stuck there “until he got the pension”.  His adoptive parents were pleased at his getting into a middle class job, and having financial security.  However Jack began to get involved in community theatre, acting in plays and writing them.   He realized that writing could become his escape from life in the lower middle class.  In his short volumes of autobiography, he gives an amusing picture of the Dublin theatre scene, of acting in drama groups... And of butting heads with the members of the Catholic clergy, who were often involved with local amateur dramatics, because it was a safe social activity for their parishioners, but who were fierce on the subject of “immorality”.  Jack disliked Irish nationalism, and was an agnostic. He gives an account of a meeting with the flamboyant and gay actor Michael Mac Liammoir...

He married Paule, a Belgian lady, and they had one child, Danielle.  Then after 14 years in the Civil Service, he had had a few plays produced and got an offer from a TV company based in Manchester.  He left the job and moved to England. He became a full time professional writer, and was one of the first Irish writers to concentrate on TV work, adapting classic novels, writing comedies and thrillers etc.  In 1970 he and his family re located to Dublin and he also began to write a humorous column for the newspapers.  One of his best works was adapting James Plunkett’s novel about the 1913 Lock Out, as a TV serial.  It was a big success and started the career of Bryan Murray; who later played “Flurry Knox” in the “Irish RM” and Peter O’Toole played James Larkin.   His best known play “Da” bout his adoptive father, was made into a film In the 1980s.

I’ve always loved the Hugh Leonard column, with its wit and pointed digs at his various betes noir.  He disliked the Irish broadcaster Gay Byrne and the politician Charles J Haughey.  He was deeply hostile to the IRA.  His autobiographical writings are short and I wish he had written some more.

His plays and writing brought him a handsome income, but he lost a good deal in the 1980s when he, together with Gay Byrne was “ripped off” by his accountant Russell Murphy, who embezzled money from his clients.

In 2000, his wife Paule died of an asthma attack.  He was devastated but continued to write and work.  Later, he married a younger American woman but the marriage wasn’t a success.

He died in 2008,at the age of 82.