Jimmy Murphy (playwright)


Jimmy Murphy is an Irish playwright living in Dublin. He is a former writer in residence at NUI Maynooth, a member of the Abbey Theatre’s Honorary Advisory Council, a recipient of three Bursaries in literature from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíona and was elected a member of Aosdána in 2004 and was elected to its governing body An Toscaireacht in 2025.

Early life and education

Murphy was born to Irish parents in Salford, Lancashire on 30 September 1962. When he was six, his family returned to Dublin, settling in the South inner-city district of Islandbridge. He first went to school in nearby Inchicore, attending the Oblate Fathers’ primary school there, then moved to Ballyfermot, a working-class heartland of suburban Dublin, in his teens. There, he attended secondary school at St. John's De La Salle College. After failing the Irish Intermediate Certificate, he left school to pursue an apprenticeship in painting and decorating, taking his Junior and Senior Irish Trade Certificates, and the City and Guilds of London exams at the Dublin Institute of Technology, Bolton Street.

Career

His stage plays include Brothers of the Brush, which was awarded best new Irish play; A Picture of Paradise ; The Muesli Belt ; Aceldama, Kings of the Kilburn High Road, The Castlecomer Jukebox and What's Left of The Flag, nominated for an Irish Times Best New Play Award. Murphy's last play, with an all-female cast, The Hen Night Epiphany, premiered at The Focus Theatre, Dublin in September 2011 and was published by Oberon Books. It has recently been translated into Hebrew.
Plays for radio include Mandarin Lime, Peel’s Brimstone, and "The Jangle of the Keys". His awards include The Stewart Parker Award in 1994. The play The Kings of the Kilburn High Road was adapted by Tom Collins as the Irish language film Kings, and was selected as Ireland’s entry for the best foreign-language film for the Academy Awards by the Irish Film and Television Academy.
Three of his plays have been presented at the Acting Irish International Theatre Festival: Brothers of the Brush, The Kings of the Kilburn High Road.
A one-act play, Perfida, premiered at Theatre Upstairs in July 2012. In October 2012 "The Muesli Belt" received its US premiere at the Banshee Theater, Burbank, CA and in 2013 "The Hen Night Epiphany" received its US premiere at the Wade James Theater, Edmonds WA. In June 2013 a new production of Perfidia was staged by Red Kettle Theatre Company at their new theatre in Waterford. In May 2017 Murphy's second Verbatim piece for the Abbey, looking at police corruption, "A Whisper Anywhere Else", was produced at the Peacock Theatre. His first Verbatim play for the Abbey, "Of This Brave Time", commissioned to commemorate the 1916 Easter Rising, toured the UK in 2016 and later returned to the Peacock stage for a short run. A one act play, commissioned by Levin' Dred to mark the centenary of the drawing of the Irish border "The Cartographer's Pen, opened at the Town Hall Theatre, Cavan, in May 2022. The following August Decadent Theatre, produced The Chief", a full length play that looked at the last days of Michael Collins.

Works

Brothers of the Brush, which was awarded best new Irish playA Picture of Paradise Aceldama The Muesli Belt The Kings of the Kilburn High Road The Castlecomer Jukebox What's Left of The Flag The Hen Night Epiphany published London, Oberon Books
  • "Perfidia"
  • "Of This Brave Time"
  • "The Kiss"
  • "A Whisper Anywhere Else"
  • "Idlewild"
  • "The Seamster’s Daughter"
  • "The Meadow"
  • "Voices From The Bloodied Field/Joe Traynor"
  • "The Cartographer's Pen"
  • "The Chief"

Awards