Maurice Walsh was an Irish novelist, now best known for his short story "The Quiet Man", later made into the Oscar-winning film The Quiet Man, directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara.
16 Facts About Maurice Walsh
1.
2.
Maurice Walsh was one of Ireland's best-selling authors in the 1930s.
3.
Maurice Walsh was born on or about 21 April 1879, in the townland of Ballydonoghue, near Listowel, County Kerry, Ireland.
4.
Maurice Walsh was the third of ten children and the first son born to John Walsh, a local farmer, and his wife, Elizabeth Buckley, who lived in a three-roomed thatched farmhouse.
5.
Maurice Walsh's father was politically involved in the National Land League but his main interests were books and horses and he employed others to work the farm.
6.
John Walsh passed on to his son a love of books, as well as Irish legends and folk tales and the theory of place which features in much of his work.
7.
Maurice Walsh produced some 20 novels, plus a large number of short stories, many set in Scotland or the West of Ireland and containing a mix of drama and romance.
8.
Caroline predeceased him in January 1941; Maurice Walsh himself died on February 18,1964, in Blackrock, Dublin, and was buried in the Esker cemetery at Lucan, County Dublin.
9.
Maurice Walsh went to school in nearby Lisselton, later attending St Michael's College in Listowel to prepare for the Civil Service examination.
10.
In 1908, Maurice Walsh sold two stories to the Irish Emerald, a Dublin magazine containing a mix of stories by Irish writers with articles on Irish history and language.
11.
In 1922, Maurice Walsh transferred to the Excise service of the newly formed Irish Free State and moved to Dublin, where he joined Comhaltas Cana, the Irish customs officers association, and wrote for its journal Irisleabhar.
12.
In 1932, Maurice Walsh published Blackcock's Feather, which was later translated into Irish as Cleite chiarchoiligh for use in schools.
13.
Maurice Walsh retired from government service the next year to become a full-time writer and shortly after sold his short story, "The Quiet Man", to The Saturday Evening Post, a US weekly that published F Scott Fitzgerald among others.
14.
Maurice Walsh became President of the Irish branch of PEN in 1938, visiting the United States that year as the Irish delegate; when World War II began in 1939, his article in defence of Irish neutrality, "Ireland in a Warring Europe", was published in The Saturday Evening Post.
15.
Maurice Walsh is remembered today primarily for his short story "The Quiet Man", but in the 1930s and 1940s, he was one of Ireland's best selling authors.
16.
Maurice Walsh's admirers are said to have included Ernest Hemingway, while his historical novels were set in periods and perspectives less well-known today.