Thomas Carnduff, poet and playwright, was born on 30 January 1886 in Belfast and died in that city on 17 April 1956.[1] He was raised in the Protestant working-class district of Sandy Row; worked in the city's shipyards (where in 1920 he purportedly helped Catholic workers escape across the Lagan River from the fury of Protestant pogromists); was a member of the early labour-supporting Independent Orange Order; saw action in World War 1; and, after partition, served in the Northern Ireland police reserve, the B Specials.[2][3][4]

His first collection of poetry Songs from the Shipyards was published in 1924. In the 1930s, there were a series of plays,[2] four of which were staged both by the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and by the Empire Theatre in Belfast. Workers, Traitors, Machinery and Castlereagh.[5]

In Castlereagh (1935). Carnduff celebrated the United Irishman, James (Jemmy) Hope,[3] the weaver from Templepatrick who insisted that the real causes of social disorder in Ireland were "the conditions of the labouring class".[6] Carnduff was a friend of Peadar O'Donnell,[2] socialist and "somewhat erratic republican",[7] and was drawn to the left-republican Connolly Association formed in 1938.[2]

From 1951 to 1954, he was the resident caretaker for the Linen Hall Library in Belfast where he is commemorated with a Blue Plaque and a portrait.[8]

References

  1. ↑ James Quinn. "Carnduff, Thomas". Dictionary of Irish Biography. (Eds.)James Mcguire, James Quinn. Cambridge, United Kingdom:Cambridge University Press, 2009.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Devlin, Patrick. "Thomas Carnduff (1886 - 1956): Poet and playwright -'The Shipyard Poet'. The Dictionary of Ulster Biography". www.newulsterbiography.co.uk. Retrieved 18 June 2023.
  3. 1 2 Maxwell, Nick (2018). "Inventing the Myth: Political Passions and the Ulster Protestant Imagination". History Ireland. Retrieved 18 June 2023.
  4. ↑ Parr, Conal (12 January 2021). "Thomas Carnduff — the shipyard worker, Orangeman and poet who could be a face for Northern Ireland to mark its centenary". News Letter.
  5. ↑ Production, March 1991 (9 May 2023). "The Writings of Thomas Carnduff". Tinderbox Theatre Company. Retrieved 18 June 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. ↑ Madden, Robert (1900). Antrim and Down in '98 : The Lives of Henry Joy m'Cracken, James Hope, William Putnam m'Cabe, Rev. James Porter, Henry Munro. Glasgow: Cameron, Ferguson & Co. p. 108.
  7. ↑ Longley, Edna (1994). The Living Stream: Literature and Revisionism in Ireland. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Bloodaxe Books. p. 124. ISBN 1852242175.
  8. ↑ Fischer, William (2019). "Thomas Carnduff". Ulster History Circle. Retrieved 18 June 2023.



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