Patrick MacGill
[Image:Patrick MacGill, 1936.jpg|thumb|Patrick MacGill]
Patrick MacGill was an Irish journalist, poet and novelist, known as "The Navvy Poet" because he had worked as a navvy before he began writing.
Personal life
MacGill was born in Glenties, County Donegal. A statue in his honour is on the bridge where the main street crosses the river in Glenties. He had three children, Christine, Patricia and Sheila MacGill. He died in Florida aged 73 and was buried in Fall River, Massachusetts.Military service
During the First World War, MacGill served with the Irish Rifles">Ireland">Irish Rifles and was wounded at the Battle of Loos on 28 October 1915. He was recruited into military intelligence, and wrote for MI 7b between 1916 and the Armistice in 1918.MacGill wrote a memoir-type novel called Children of the Dead End.
Legacy
In early 2008, a docu-drama starring Stephen Rea was made about the life of Patrick MacGill, which was released in Ireland in 2009 as Child of the Dead End. One of the film's locations was the boathouse of Edinburgh Canal Society at Edinburgh on the Union Canal, and one of its rowing boats.An annual literary event, the Patrick MacGill Festival, is held in Glenties in his honour.
Novels
- Children of the Dead End: The Autobiography of a Navvy
- The Amateur Army
- The Red Horizon
- The Great Push: An Episode in the Great War
- The Brown Brethren The Dough-Boys
- The Diggers: The Australians in France, foreword by W. M. Hughes, Australian PM
- Glenmornan
- Maureen
- Fear!
- Lanty Hanlon: A Comedy of Irish Life
- Moleskin Joe
- The Carpenter of Orra
- Sid Puddiefoot
- Una Cassidy
- Tulliver’s Mill
- The Glen of Carra
- The House at the World's End
- ''Helen Spenser''
Poetry
- Gleanings from a Navvy's Scrapbook
- Songs of a Navvy
- Songs of the Dead End
- Soldier Songs
- Songs of Donegal
- The Navvy Poet: Collected Poetry of Patrick MacGill
Plays
- Moleskin Joe
- ''Suspense: A Play in Three Acts''