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Benedict Kiely
Biography
Benedict Kiely was born in 1919 in Dromore, County Tyrone and grew up in Omagh. His father worked for the Ordnance Survey. Kiely planned to be a Jesuit priest but, after a serious back ailment, he quit and went to University College, Dublin, graduating in history and literature. He started worked as a journalist and remained a journalist for much of his life. His first book was on politics but he soon started writing novels and short stories. His writing focuses very much on the people of Ireland, their myths and culture, including religion, and also using the Troubles as background. He died in 2007.
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Bibliography
1945 Counties of Contention: A Study of the Origins and Implications of the Partition of Ireland (history)
1946 Land Without Stars (novel)
1947 Poor Scholar: A Study of the Works and Days of William Carleton 1794-1869 (biography)
1948 Call for a Miracle (novel)
1949 In a Harbour Green (novel)
1950 Modern Irish Fiction: A Critique (criticism)
1952 Honey Seems Bitter (novel)
1953 The Cards of the Gambler (novel)
1955 There Was an Ancient House (novel)
1960 The Captain with the Whiskers (novel)
1963 A Journey to the Seven Streams (stories)
1968 Dogs Enjoy the Morning (novel)
1973 A Ball of Malt and Madame Butterfly (stories)
1977 Proxopera: A Tale of Modern Ireland (novel)
1978 A Cow in the House (stories)
1978 All the Way to Bantry Bay and Other Irish Journeys (travel)
1981 The State of Ireland: A Novella and Seven Short Stories (stories)
1985 Nothing Happens in Carmincross (novel)
1987 A Letter to Peachtree (stories)
1992 Drink to the Bird: An Omagh Boyhood (autobiography)
1996 The Trout in the Turnhole (children’s)
1996 And As I Rode by Granard Moat anthology)
1999 Benedict Kiely, A Raid into Dark Corners and Other Essays (essays)
1999 The Waves Behind Us (autobiography)
2001 The Collected Stories of Benedict Kiely (stories)