Bibliography

Bibliography

The Novels and Novellas of Dermot Bolger

Published by Brandon Publishers. Reissued by Penguin, 1992.

Original version published by Raven Arts Press. Expanded version published by Penguin, 1992 and reissued by Flamingo/HarperCollins in 2003. Opening section published in French as Le Ventre de L’ange by Le Passeur in 1994. Complete text published in French as Le Ruisseau de Cristal by Éditions Joëlle Losfeld in 2014. Swedish edition published as Kvinnans Dotter by Bonniers in 1994. Serbian edition published as Kći Ženina by Clio in 2012.

Selected Other novels

Published in hardback by Viking in 1990, in softback by Penguin in 1991 and reissued by Flamingo/HarperCollins in 2013. Published in French as La Ville des Ténèbres by Presses de la Renaissance in 1992 and later reissued in softback by Éditions 10/18. Published in hardback in German as Journey Home by Hitzeroth in 1992 and in softback by Rotbuch Verlag in 1996. Published in Swedish as Vägen Hem by Bonniers in 1993. Published in Italian as Verso Casa by Fazi Editore in 1997. Published in hardback in America by The University of Texas Press in 2008.

Published in hardback by Viking in 1992 and in softback by Penguin in 1993.

Selected Other novels

Published in hardback by Viking in 1994 and in softback by Penguin in 1995. Published in Swedish as Ett Andra Liv by Bonniers in 1994. Published in Dutch as Een Tweede Leven by De Geus in 1998. An extensively revised text was published by New Island in 2010 in their Classic Irish Novels series and this new text was published in French as Une Seconde Vie by Éditions JoëlleLosfeld, in a large-print edition by À vue d’œil and in paperback by Gallimard in their Folio series. A final definitive text of the novel  (based on new research) was published in 2022 by New Island

Selected Other novels

Published by Flamingo/HarperCollins in hardback in 1997 and softback in 1998. Published in Swedish as Sången från Donegal by Bonniers in 1997. Published in French in trade paperback as La Musique du Père by Albin Michel in 1990 and in softback by Éditions 10/18.

A novella based on the author’s stage play, published by New Island in 1999 as part of its Open Door adult literacy series. Published under the same name in Australia by Flamingo Express in 2001. Published in French as Un Irlandais en Allemagne by Librio in 2001. Published in German as Im Füssball-fieber by Fischer Verlag in 2001 and 2003. Published in Czech as Tenkrát v Německu in 2004.

Published in trade paperback and then softback by Flamingo/HarperCollins in 2000 and 2001. Published in French in trade paperback as Tentation by Albin Michel in 2001 and then in hardback by Éditions France Loisirs in 2002. Published in German as Die Versuchung by Rotbuch Verlag in 2002. Published in French as Le Voyage à Valparaiso by Albin Michel in 2003.

Published in trade paperback and then softback by Flamingo, HarperCollins in 2001 and 2002. Published in German as Die Reise nach Valparaiso by Rotbuch Verlag in 2003. Published in French as Le Voyage à Valparaiso by Albin Michel in 2003. It is also published in Greek.

The Family on Paradise Pier

Published in hardback and trade paperback by Fourth Estate/HarperCollins in 2005 and in a softback edition with additional material by Harper Perennial in 2006. Published in French as Toute la Famille sur la Jetée du Paradis by Éditions Joëlle Losfeld in 2008 and in paperback by Gallimard in their Folio series in 2009. Published in Italian as Figli del Passato by Fazi Editore in 2007

A crossover novel for young adults published by Little Island in 2010 and by New Island after 2011. Published in German as Wo Die Verlorenen Seelen Wohnen by Boje Verlag in 2012. Published in France as Le Sort en est Jeté by Flammarion in 2015.

Published by New Island in hardback in 2012 and softback in 2013. Published in French as Une Illusion Passagère by Éditions Joëlle Losfeld in 2013 and in Bulgarian in 2016.

Tanglewood

Published by New Island in 2015. Published in French as Ensemble Séparés by Éditions Joëlle Losfeld in 2016.

The Lonely Sea and Sky

Published by New Island in 2016.

An Ark of Light

Published by New Island in 2018. Published in FRench in Jan 2022 by Éditions Joëlle Losfeld under the title, “Une Arche de Lumiere”.

Published by New Island Books, Dublin, September 2020. For more details see news item on this website called “Secrets never Told” or https://www.newisland.ie/fiction/secrets-never-told

“Hide Away” being published by New Island Books in Sept 2024. The publisher’s blurb reads as follows:

“Hidden behind the walls of Grangegorman Mental Hospital in Dublin in 1941, four very different lives collide, all afflicted by wars, betrayals and trauma. Gus, a shrewd attendant, is the keeper of everyone’s secrets, especially his own. Two War of Independence veterans are reunited. One, Jimmy Nolan, has spent twenty years as a psychiatric patient, unable to recover from his involvement in youthful killings. In contrast, Francis Dillon has prospered as a businessman, until rumours of Civil War atrocities cause his collapse, suffering delusions of enemies seek to kill him. An English doctor named Fairfax has fled London after his gay lover’s death. Desperate to rekindle a sense of purpose, Fairfax tries to help Dillon recover by getting him to talk about his past. But a code of silence surrounds that traumatic Civil War. Is Dillon willing to break his silence to find a way back to his family?

In this superb evocation of hidden worlds, Dermot Bolger explores the aftershock within people who participate in violence and the fault-lines in any post-conflict society only held together by collective amnesia.”

 

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Collaborative Novels

A collaborative novel devised and edited by Dermot Bolger with seven individual chapters written by Dermot Bolger, Anne Enright, Joseph O’Connor, Colm Tóibín, Jennifer Johnston, Hugo Hamilton and Roddy Doyle – although the authorship of each chapter is not revealed. Published in Ireland in 1997 by New Island; in Britain in 1997 by Picador and in America in 1999 by Harcourt. Also published under this original title in Dutch by Nijgh & Van Ditmar (2000), in Serbian by Clio (1998) in German by Kruger Verlag (2000), in Italian by Baldini & Castoldi (1999) and in French by Éditions Joëlle Losfeld (1999). Published in Portuguese under the title Hotel Finbar by Publicações Dom Quixote in 2004 and in Japanese in 2000.

A collaborative novel devised and edited by Dermot Bolger with a prologue written by Dermot Bolger and seven individual chapters written by Maeve Binchy, Clare Boylan, Emma Donoghue, Anna Haverty, Éilis Ní Dhuibhne, Kate O’Riordan and Deirdre Purcell – although the authorship of each chapter is not revealed. Published in Ireland in 1999 by New Island; in Britain in 1999 by Picador and in America in 2000 by Harcourt. Also published under this original title in German by Kruger Verlag in 2001, in French by Éditions Joëlle Losfeld under the title Une Suite au Finbar’s Hotel, and in Japanese.

Plays

Selected popular plays

Staged by Wet Paint Theatre Company in the Project Art Centre as part of the 1989 Dublin Theatre Festival. Received Edinburgh Fringe First Award, Samuel Beckett Prize and Stewart Parker BBC Prize. Broadcast by BBC Radio 4. First staged in Britain by 7:84 Theatre Company, Scotland. First staged in America by the Irish Arts Centre, New York. Published in A Dublin Quartet by Dermot Bolger (Penguin Books, 1992) and in Dermot Bolger: Plays 1 (Methuen, 2000). Published in French translation as La Déploration d’Arthur Cleary by L’Harmattan (Paris 2000).

Staged by the Abbey Theatre on its Peacock stage. Received the Listowel Prize and the O Z Whitehead Prize. Published in Dermot Bolger: Plays 1 (Methuen, 2000).

Staged by the Gate Theatre as part of the 1980 Dublin Theatre Festival. Television version broadcast by RTE. Published in A Dublin Quartet by Dermot Bolger (Penguin Books, 1992) and in Dermot Bolger: Plays 1 (Methuen, 2000).

Staged by the Gate Theatre, Dublin, alongside a revival of In High Germany. Received an Edinburgh Fringe First Award. Published in A Dublin Quartet by Dermot Bolger (Penguin Books, 1992) and in Dermot Bolger: Plays 1 (Methuen, 2000).

Staged by the Abbey Theatre on its Peacock stage as part of the 1991 Dublin Theatre Festival. Published in A Dublin Quartet by Dermot Bolger (Penguin Books, 1992).

An adaptation of Ulysses staged by the Rosenbach Museum, Philadelphia. In later productions and with a revised script this simply became known as Ulysses. This original text was published in Ireland by New Island and in the UK by Nick Hern Books.

Selected popular plays

Staged by the Abbey Theatre on its Peacock stage before undertaking a national tour. Published in French as Ombre et Lumière d’Avril, by L’Harmattan (Paris, 2003).

Staged by the Abbey Theatre on its Peacock stage. Published by Methuen in the UK and by New Island in Ireland. Published in French translation as Prodige à Ballymun by L’Harmattan (Paris, 2001).

Staged by Fishamble Theatre Company.

Selected popular plays

The first part of The Ballymun Trilogy: three standalone plays that chart forty years of life in a working class Dublin suburb. Staged by Axis Art Centre, Ballymun. Received Irish Times/ESB Award for Best New Irish Play of 2004.

The second part of The Ballymun Trilogy: three standalone plays that chart forty years of life in a working class Dublin suburb. Staged by Axis Art Centre, Ballymun and toured to the National Theatre of Poland in 2007.

Selected popular plays

Based on the life of the Irish poet Francis Ledwidge who died during the Third Battle of Ypres. Staged by Axis in Ballymun before the production transferred to Ieper in Flanders to mark the 90th anniversary of his death there.

The third part of The Ballymun Trilogy: three standalone plays that chart forty years in life in a working class Dublin suburb. Staged by Axis Art Centre, Ballymun.

A standalone companion piece to the author’s 1990 play, In High Germany, which traces the same characters’ lives twenty years later. Produced by Axis, Ballymun before touring to the US, UK, Sweden and elsewhere.

Produced by Axis, Ballymun.

Ulysses

A new and revised version of the author’s stage adaption of Joyce’s Ulysses, directed by Andy Arnold produced by The Tron Theatre, Glasgow, which toured to Glasgow, Dublin, Belfast and Cork in 2012; to the Edinburgh Festival in 2013 and toured to a succession of cities in China in 2014, which became the subject of a BBC Scotland Television documentary. This adaption was later revised again for a new production, directed by Graham McLaren and staged by the Abbey Theatre on its main stage as part of the 2017 Dublin Theatre Festival and revived for a second run in 2018.

Produced by Axis Ballymun in association with the Bewley’s Café Theatre.

Last Orders at the Dockside

Premiered by the Abbey Theatre as part of the 2019 Dublin Theatre Festival.

A play about the North Strand bombing in Dublin, filmed and streamed, on the 80th anniversary of the bombing, in an online production by Axis, directed by Mark O’Brien.

A new play by Dermot Bolger, in association with The Civic, as part of Dublin Theatre Festival.

After decades abroad, Shane returns to a multicultural Ireland he barely recognises. But he discovers surprising links: an unknown daughter, a black teenage grandson trying to define his identity, and gangland figures threatening the boy’s future.
Can he protect this grandson who is unaware of his existence and can they both find ways to feel they truly belong here?

Home, Boys, Home completes a unique trilogy that started with In High Germany in the 1990 Dublin Theatre Festival: three standalone plays, written fifteen years apart, recounting the lives of three friends, as emigrants abroad and now as returnees to Ireland.

Author’s Note: They started off in the Gate Theatre in the 1990 Dublin Theatre Festival, as three young Bohs fans in their late twenties, heading off to Euro 88, having always dreamt of following the Irish soccer team to a major tournament and coming home like heroes with stories to tell. That first play, “In High Germany”, gave them stories to tell but no one to tell them to as all three of them were emigrants, moving abroad to Germany, Holland and America in search of work and new lives.  Two of these friends were reunited in 2010, in the play, “The Parting Glass”, that toured Ireland, America and Britain, and took up the story of the joys and tragedies in their lives as they met up in Paris to watch the cheating hand of Thierry Henry rob Ireland of a place in the World Cup finals and for them to scatter the ashes of their dead friend on the turf of the Stade de France. Now their stories conclude in the third and final part of this unique trilogy, which updates their story up to the year 2024 when suddenly they are facing retirement and returning to an Ireland utterly changed from the country they left 36 years ago. Patrick Kavanagh once noted the observation of Marcus Aurelius that while he aged the people on the street remained the same age – twenty-three on average. In contrast, Shane and Mick and Eoin have aged at exactly the same pace as me. If any of you saw the first two plays, you may wish to see the trilogy be completed in the 2024 Dublin Theatre Festival at the Civic Theatre from Oct 1st to Oct 12th.

Radio and Television Plays

A television play made by RTE and broadcast by RTE and BBC.

A radio play based on the author’s novel, produced by RTE and broadcast on RTE Radio 1, the BBC World Service and national radio stations in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and America. Received the Worldplay International Radio Prize.

Radio play produced by and broadcast on RTE Radio 1.

Radio play produced by and broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

Radio play produced by and broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

Radio play produced by and broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

Radio play produced by and broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

Radio play produced by and broadcast on RTE Radio 1.

Radio play produced by and broadcast on RTE Radio 1.

Radio play produced by and broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

Radio play produced and broadcast by RTE Radio. Morning Coffee by Dermot Bolger

“A stranger from the past drives into the yard of on an elderly couple. Is this seemingly benign intrusion the action of a man seeking to make atonement and bring justice, or wreak havoc on the lives of the couple?”
Morning Coffee is a play that is either about a man refusing to accept any status of victimhood or else about a man so traumatised by childhood events that he cannot admit them into his present life, even if they have shaped his life. It is about a perpetrator who has slowly come to understand the implications of his actions and now feels a need to be shamed and published in old age. It is about an elderly couple who, after decades of loneliness, have found each other and built a small republic of love where they are determined that whatever secrets they share will go with them to the grave.” A text is also available as a one act play.
 

Poetry Collections

(Raven Arts Press)

(Raven Arts Press)

(Raven Arts Press)

(The Dolmen Press)

(Raven Arts Press)

(New Island Books)

(New Island Books)

(New Island Books)

(New Island Books)

The Poetry of Dermot Bolger

(New Island Books) 

The Poetry of Dermot Bolger

  • Published in April 2022 by New Island, whose blurb states: “Every night during a year spent in lockdown, Dermot Bolger set out on long walks through deserted streets, armed only with a pen and paper. Bolger follows in the footsteps of the great Portuguese poet, Fernando Pessoa, using walks through his native city to allow his imagination free rein to revisit pivotal moments in his own life and speculatively meditate on the lives of others in a series of remarkable poems.

    The book starts with his parents honeymooning in a Wicklow orchard during wartime and ends, eight decades later, with the poet dancing with his partner in a Wicklow field at dusk. In between we encounter Nuala O’Faolain on a bicycle on Brooklyn Bridge; Grace Gifford Plunkett still defiant in her lonely final years; Arthur Fields who took photographs on O’Connell Bridge for half a century; Herbert Simms, the brilliant, overworked Dublin housing architect; and Patricia Lynch, writing children’s books in one room while her husband wrote communist tracts in the next. Interlaced with these real lives are imagined ones, charting a dazzling constellation of experiences.”

Books Edited by Dermot Bolger

  • 1992: Selected Poems of Francis Ledwidge (Introduced by Seamus Heaney)
  • 1993: The Picador Book of Contemporary Irish Fiction
  • 1994: Ireland in Exile: an anthology of Irish writers living abroad
  • 1995: The Vintage Book of Irish Fiction (New York)
  • 1996: The Hennessy Book of Irish Fiction (edited with Ciaran Carty)
  • 2000: The New Picador Book of Irish Fiction – extended version of the 1993 anthology
  • 2002: Druids, Dudes & Beauty Queens: The Changing Face of Irish Theatre
  • 2005: The New Hennessy Book of Irish Fiction (edited with Ciaran Carty)
  • 2006: County Lines: A Portrait of South Dublin County Through Its Writers
  • 2007: The Ledwidge Treasury.
  • 2008: Night & Day: Twenty Four Hours in the life of Dublin
  • 2015: The Hennessy Book of Irish Fiction 2005-2015 (Edited with Ciaran Carty)

Awards

  • The A.E. Memorial Prize
  • The Macaulay Fellowship
  • The Samuel Beckett Prize for best debut play in the British Isles
  • Edinburgh Fringe First Awards in 1990 and 1995
  • The Hennessy Prize
  • BBC Stewart Parker BBC Prize
  • The O.Z. Whitehead Prize
  • The Sunday Tribune Arts Award
  • Inaugural Hennessy Hall of Fame Irish Literature Award
  • Irish Times ESB Award for Best New Irish Play 2005
  • Worldplay International Radio Drama Prize 2005
  • Commentator of the Year, Irish National Newspapers Awards, 2012
  • The Anthony Cronin Award, 2019
  • The Lawrence O'Shaughnessy Award for Poetry, 2021
  • Honorary doctorate in literature conferred by the National University of Ireland, 2022


Shortlisted

  • The Hughes & Hughes Irish Fiction Prize
  • The Irish Times/Aer Lingus Irish Fiction Prize
  • The Kerry Group Novel of the year Prize
  • Best Writing Award, New York Festival International Radio Awards 2014

Positions Held

  • Writer Fellow, Trinity College Dublin
  • Playwright in Association with the Abbey Theatre
  • Writer in Residence, South Dublin County Council
  • Writer in Residence, Farmleigh House, Dublin
  • Writer in Residence at the National Museum of Ireland
  • Fellow at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in Italy

Languages Published in

French, Swedish, German, Italian, Greek, Serbian, Japanese, Dutch, Portuguese, Czech, Hindi, Bulgarian, Slovenian, etc.