View source for Una Troy

{{short description|Irish novelist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}
{{Use Irish English|date=January 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Una Troy
| birth_date         = 21 May 1910 (some sources give 1913)
| birth_place        = [[Fermoy]], County Cork, Ireland
| death_date         = 27 September 1993
| death_place        = [[Bonmahon]], Ireland
| nationality        = Irish
| occupation         = Novelist and playwright
| relatives          = [[Seán Keating]] (brother-in-law)
}}
'''Una Troy Walsh''' (21 May 1910 – 27 September 1993) was an [[List of Irish novelists|Irish novelist]] and playwright who wrote under the names '''Elizabeth Connor''' and '''Una Troy'''.
== Early life ==
Troy was born in [[Fermoy]], [[County Cork]],<ref>{{Cite news|last=Owen|first=Emma Mae|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47662382/both-tears-and-laughter-found-in-we/|title=Both Tears and Laughter Found in 'We Are Seven'|date=1957-03-24|work=The Jackson Sun|access-date=2020-03-30|pages=29|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> the daughter of John S. Troy and Brigid Agnes Hayes. Her father was a lawyer and a judge. Her sister Gráinne (or Grania, 1913–1970) was a musician, and her sister Shevaun (1923–1993) was a poet.<ref name=":0">Butler, Ann M. ''[https://www.nli.ie/pdfs/mss%20lists/troyu.pdf Collection List for Una Troy Papers]'', National Library of Ireland.</ref> She was educated at the Loreto Convent in [[Rathfarnham]], Dublin.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803105904457|title=Una Troy|website=The Concise Oxford Companion to Irish Literature|language=en|access-date=2020-03-30}}</ref>
== Career ==
=== Before and during World War II ===
Writing under the pen name of "Elizabeth Connor",<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Walsh|first=I.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BiMqiOVPp8EC&q=Una+Troy&pg=PA74|title=Experimental Irish Theatre: After W.B. Yeats|date=2012-03-13|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1-137-00136-8|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=O'Reilly|first=Terence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E-sl4wW6KwcC&q=%22Elizabeth+Connor%22+Rebel+Heart&pg=PA220|title=Rebel Heart: George Lennon : Flying Column Commander|date=2009|publisher=Mercier Press Ltd|isbn=978-1-85635-649-7|pages=220–224|language=en}}</ref> she began her career in 1936 with the publication of the novel ''Mount Prospect'', which was banned in the [[Irish Free State]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ucd.ie/scholarcast/transcripts/four_nations_feminism.pdf|title= Four Nations Feminism: Una Troy and Menna Gallie|last= Connolly|first=Claire|date=Spring 2010|publisher=UCDscholarcast|pages=3|access-date=16 December 2011}}</ref> Adapted as a play, it garnered the [[Shaw Prize]] for new playwrights and was performed on the [[Abbey Theatre, Dublin|Abbey]] stage in 1940. Two subsequent plays by Troy ''Swans and Geese'' and ''An Apple a Day,'' were also performed at the Abbey in the early 1940s.<ref>{{cite book|last=Leland|first=Mary|title=The lie of the land: journeys through literary Cork |publisher=Cork University Press|year=1999|pages=161|isbn=978-1-85918-231-4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PL1YhI3Rp1cC&q=%22Una+Troy%22+born+fermoy&pg=PA161|access-date=2011-12-16}}</ref><ref>[http://www.irishplayography.com/person.aspx?personid=39303 "People: Elizabeth Connor"] ''Irish Playography''.</ref>
In 1938, ''Dead Star's Light'' was published. The protagonist, John Davern, was based on the character of IRA revolutionary idealist [[George Lennon]] of West [[County Waterford|Waterford]]. While not banned, it did elicit censure from Troy's parish priest in Clonmel.<ref name=":2" /> ''Dead Star's Light'' was performed on the Abbey stage in 1947 as ''The Dark Road''.<ref name=":1" />
=== After World War II ===
Troy's 1955 novel, ''We Are Seven'', was adapted as a film, ''[[She Didn't Say No!]]'' (1958), for which she was the co-writer.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ifi.ie/film/she-didnt-say-no-3/|title=She Didn't Say No|website=Irish Film Institute|language=en|access-date=2020-03-30}}</ref> Because of its portrayal of illegitimacy, the film was not released in Ireland until a film copy was retrieved in 2001 at the [[Irish Film Archive]]. It was shown at the [[Museum of Modern Art]] in New York in 2005, as part of an international film preservation festival.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.iftn.ie/news/?act1=record&only=1&aid=73&rid=1247&tpl=archnews&force=1|title=MOMA To Screen Restored 'She Didn't Say No!'|date=1 April 2005|website=The Irish Film & Television Network|access-date=2020-03-30}}</ref> Thanks to the European initiative 'A Season of Classic Films'<ref>{{Cite book|last=|url=https://ace-film.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/A-Season-of-Classic-Films_Programme-catalogue.pdf|title=A Season of Classic Films: Programme Catalogue|publisher=ACE – Association des Cinémathèques Européennes|year=2020|editor-last=Reizi|editor-first=Paulina|location=Amsterdam, the Netherlands}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=A Season of Classic Films|url=https://ace-film.eu/projects/season-of-classics/|access-date=12 April 2021|website=Association des Cinémathèques Européennes (ACE)}}</ref> of the [[Association des Cinémathèques Européennes (ACE)]], the film has been digitised in early 2021 and made possible to release online with an introduction on the film’s preservation and history.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Reizi|first=Paulina|title=A Season of Classic Films: She Didn't Say No!|url=https://ace-film.eu/a-season-of-classic-films-she-didnt-say-no/|access-date=12 April 2021|website=ACE – Association des Cinémathèques Européennes}}</ref>
== Selected publications ==
* ''Mount Prospect'' (also known as ''No House of Peace'', 1936)
* ''Dead Star's Light'' (1938)
* ''We Are Seven'' (1955)<ref>{{Cite book|last=Troy|first=Una|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NoiCOwAACAAJ|title=We are Seven|date=1990|publisher=Chivers|isbn=978-0-86220-607-9|language=en}}</ref>
* ''Miss Maggie'' ''and the Doctor'' (also known as ''Maggie'', 1958)<ref>{{Cite book|last=Troy|first=Una|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XLA_HaWQ-FAC|title=Miss Maggie and the Doctor|date=1958|publisher=Dutton|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1958/06/29/110080354.html|title=Dr. Bill's Housekeeper|last=Cobb|first=Jane|date=29 June 1958|website=New York Times|language=en|access-date=2020-03-30}}</ref>
* ''The Workhouse Graces'' (also known as ''The Graces of Ballykeen,'' 1959)<ref>{{Cite news|last=Minick|first=Elaine I.|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47662552/sisters-in-paupers-home-find-riches-in/|title=Sisters in Paupers' Home Find Riches in Friendship|date=1960-01-10|work=Chattanooga Daily Times|access-date=2020-03-30|pages=16|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
* ''The Other End of the Bridge'' (1960)<ref>{{Cite book|last=Troy|first=Una|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XrJSxAEACAAJ|title=The Other End of the Bridge|date=1960|publisher=Heinemann|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Johnson|first=C. W.|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47662718/irish-feuding-becomes-frolicc-w/|title=Irish Feuding Becomes Frolic|date=1961-01-08|work=Springfield Leader and Press|access-date=2020-03-30|pages=27|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
* ''Esmond'' (1962)<ref>{{Cite news|last=Burns|first=G. Frank|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47662804/trigamyg-frank-burns/|title=Trigamy|date=1962-07-22|work=The Tennessean|access-date=2020-03-30|pages=32|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
* ''The Brimstone Halo'' (also known as ''The Prodigal Father'', 1965)<ref>{{Cite news|last=B. H. H.|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47662647/prodigal-father-returns-to-family-he/|title='Prodigal Father' Returns to Family He Left Behind|date=1965-03-21|work=The Anniston Star|access-date=2020-03-30|pages=16|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
* ''The Benefactors'' (1969)
* ''The Castle Nobody Wanted'' (1970)
* ''Tiger Puss'' (1970)
* ''Doctor Go Home'' (1973)
* ''Out of Everywhere'' (1976)
* ''Caught in the Furze'' (1977)
* ''A Sack of Gold'' (1979)
* ''So True a Fool'' (1981)
== Personal life ==
In 1931, Una Troy married Joseph C. Walsh of [[Bunmahon|Bonmahon]], who served as physician to the [[Irish Republican Army (1922–1969)|Irish Republican Army]] (IRA),<ref>{{cite book|last=O'Reilly|first=Terence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E-sl4wW6KwcC&q=%22Una+Troy%22&pg=PA220|title=Rebel Heart: George Lennon: Flying Column Commander|publisher=Mercier Press Ltd|year=2009|isbn=978-1-85635-649-7|pages=220|access-date=2011-12-16}}</ref> and later as a coroner. Her sister-in-law [[May Keating|May Walsh]] was married to Irish artist [[Seán Keating]]. The couple lived in [[Clonmel]] for most of their lives together, and had a daughter, Janet (1932–2002). Una Troy was widowed when Dr. Walsh died in 1969, and she died in 1993 in Bonmahon, County Waterford.<ref name=":1" /> Many of her papers are in the collection of the [[National Library of Ireland]].<ref name=":0" />
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
* [http://www.unatroy.info Una Troy], a website run by Troy biographer and archivist Ann M. Butler.
*{{IMDb name|id=0873914}}
*Claire Connolly, "Scholarcast 19: Four Nations Feminism: Una Troy and [[Menna Gallie]]", an audio program from [[University College Dublin]].
*[https://www.rte.ie/archives/2017/0228/856053-times-changing-in-clonmel/ "Clonmel at Crossroads of Change"] (16 March 1967), an episode of the RTÉ series ''Discovery,'' featuring Una Troy.
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Troy, Una}}
[[Category:1910 births]]
[[Category:1993 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century Irish novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century Irish women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:People from Fermoy]]
[[Category:Writers from County Cork]]
[[Category:Irish women novelists]]
[[Category:Irish women dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Writers from County Waterford]]
[[Category:Writers from County Tipperary]]
[[Category:People from Clonmel]]