James Plunkett

James Plunkett Kelly was born on 21 May 1920, at Sandymount in Dublin. He was educated at the Synge Street Christian Brothers School, and the Municipal School of Music, Camden St., Dublin, playing violin and viola. He became clerk in Dublin Gas Co., 1937, and later a full-time trade union official; working under Jim Larkin, April 1946-47, who later featured as a character in "Strumpet City". In the mid-1950s he joined Radio Éireann as a drama assistant and began his literary career with a series of radio plays. In 1961 he was appointed one of the first two directors when the television service began, some becoming an Executive Producer. His is probably best known as author of the novel Strumpet City (1980), first published in 1969. Its television adaptation by RTÉ became one of the station's most successful drama productions. The inaugural James Plunkett Memorial Award Ceremony was held on 1 June 2004. In honour of his most famous novel there is also a Strumpet City prize , for a story set anywhere in Ireland during the period 1907-1914.