News

Playwright's funeral to take place in Donegal's Glenties

Playwright Brian Friel looks at the Golden Torc he received from Aosdána in 2006. Picture by Julien Behal, Press Association
Playwright Brian Friel looks at the Golden Torc he received from Aosdána in 2006. Picture by Julien Behal, Press Association Playwright Brian Friel looks at the Golden Torc he received from Aosdána in 2006. Picture by Julien Behal, Press Association

BRIAN Friel will be buried in Glenties in West Donegal, the town he chose as the setting for his best known works.

The playwright's funeral, which will not include a church service, will take place from his home in Greencastle in the Inishowen Peninsula at 12.30pm for burial in Glenties cemetery at 3pm.

Friel’s three best known works, “Dancing at Lughnasa,” “Philadelphia, Here I Come” and “Translations” were all set in a fictional town called Ballybeg. However, it was widely accepted that Ballybeg was in reality the town of Glenties, the writer’s mother’s hometown.

While he was born in Co Tyrone and raised in Derry, Friel’s mother, Mary McLoone was a native of Glenties where she worked at one time in the town’s Post Office. Friel spent many of his childhood summers in Glenties.

In 1998, the film version of Friel’s “Dancing at Lughnasa” received its world premiere in Glenties. Among the stars of the film who attended the screening were its star, triple-Oscar winner, Meryl Streep.