Una Troy was born in 1910 at Fermoy, County Cork. She was educated at Loreto Abbey, Dublin, and her childhood during the “troubles” was an exciting one, as her home on the outskirts of Fermoy was flanked by the British Military Barracks on one side and the aerodrome on the other, with ambushes frequent. When the Irish Free State was established her father was appointed a Justice of the District Court and the family moved to Clonmel, County Tipperary.
Her husband, Joseph Walsh was a doctor in Bonmahon when they met. They had a daughter Janet (Helleris,) late of Kilmacthomas. When Una became a widow she moved to Bunmahon, County Waterford where she lived and wrote in her house in Osborne Terrace. All her life she was a keen swimmer and rockclimber.
She had written two novels, Mount Prospect, which was banned in Ireland and Dead Star’s Light under the pseudonym Elizabeth Connor.
She had written 15 novels under her own name ‘Una Troy’ which were published in Great Britain and the United States, and translations have appeared in Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, Slovene, Belgian and German. None of these books are now in print in English, but several of them are still available in German. A 16th was published posthumously in 1999 – in German only.
Her four plays have been produced at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, and the first, Mount Prospect won the Abbey Theatre Play Competition.
More information on Una Troy can be found at www.unatroy.com
[Written as Elizabeth Connor]
Mount Prospect, 1940 (Shaw 1st prize-Abbey Theatre)
Swans and Geese, 1941
Apple A Day, 1942
Dark Road, 1947
Mount Prospect, 1936 (Methuen) (No House of Peace, US, 1937
Dead Star’s Light, 1938 (Methuen)
“The White Gloves,” Ireland Today,Sept. 1937; “The Apple,” The Bell, Oct. 1942
[Written as Una Troy]
We Are Seven, 1955 (Heinemann)
Maggie, 1958 (Heinemann)…Miss Maggie and the Doctor (US)
The Workhouse Graces, 1960 (Heinemann)…Graces of Ballykeen (US)
The Other End of the Bridge, 1960 (Heinemann)
Esmond, 1962 (Hedder and Stoughton)
The Brimstone Halo, 1965 (Henry Hornbuth)…The Prodigal Father (US)
The Benefactors, 1969 (Hale)
The Castle Nobody Wanted, 1970 (Hale)
Tiger Puss, 1970 (Hale)
Stop Press, 1971 (Hale)
Doctor Go Home, 1973 (Hale)
Out Of Everywhere, 1976 (Hale)
Caught in the Furze, 1977 (Hale)
A Sack of Gold, 1979 (Hale)
So True a Fool, 1981 (Hale) (U.S.publisher: Dutton)
“The Best Butter,” Kilkenny Magazine, Spring-Summer 1966.
“She Didn’t Say No” 1958 (T. Morrison co-writer, based on Troy’s novel, We Are Seven)
Better to Burn
Fly By These Nets (published as Das Meer ist Musik, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich, 2001)
Bibliography created by and copyright Ann M. Butler
