William Boyle

William Boyle (25 April 1853 – 6 March 1923) was an Irish dramatist and short story writer. His work revolved around the life of the farm people of County Louth, Ireland in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Boyle was born in the village of Dromiskin and educated at St Mary's College in Dundalk. He began his career as a teacher but entered the civil service, working in the customs and excise department, and spent his working life in Great Britain. Boyle was a friend of two leading Irish nationalists, Charles Stewart Parnell and John Redmond. Boyle became a member of the Irish Literary Society, London. He first made a literary name with stories and comic verse for light journals and newspapers. A collection of his short stories, A Kish of Brogues, appeared in 1899. According to Irish literary scholar Norman Jeffares, it showed "his capacity to create character very convincingly." Becoming a playwright, Boyle wrote five comedies for the Abbey Theatre about the peasant people of Louth. The first three were very successful, according to Robert Hogan, another scholar of Irish literature; they were revived many times in the Abbey.