Doyle, Roddy (1958-…), is an Irish author known for his exuberant novels about working-class characters in Dublin. Critics have praised Doyle’s fiction for its vigorous dialogue, humor, and lack of sentimentality. Doyle’s novel Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha (1993) won the 1993 Booker Prize, the United Kingdom’s highest literary award (see Booker Prizes).
Doyle wrote Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha from the point of view of a 10-year-old Irish boy. The novel portrays the poverty and domestic violence that dominates Paddy’s family life. His father regularly beats his mother for reasons that Paddy cannot understand, but the boy loves them both. Doyle describes Paddy’s many humorous adventures, but the story grows increasingly dark as the narrative progresses. Doyle returned to the theme of domestic violence in The Woman Who Walked into Doors (1996). The novel tells the story of Paula Spencer, a woman abused by her husband. Doyle wrote a sequel called Paula Spencer (2006) set 10 years after the end of the earlier book.
Doyle gained international acclaim for his first three novels, published together in 1992 as The Barrytown Trilogy. The trilogy deals with the working-class Rabbitte family, who live in the fictional Dublin suburb of Barrytown. Doyle based Barrytown on Kilbarrack, the north Dublin suburb of his childhood. The trilogy consists of the comic novels The Commitments (1987), The Snapper (1990), and The Van (1991). The Guts (2014) is a comic novel that features several of the characters from the trilogy in middle age. Doyle co-wrote the screenplay for a popular film adaptation of The Commitments (1991) as well as screenplays for The Snapper (1993) and a British television production of The Van (1996). Doyle has also written several plays, including War (1989) and No Messin’ with Monkeys (2005). His short stories were collected in The Deportees (2008) and Bullfighting (2011). He also published a group of short stories about Irish families living through the COVID-19 pandemic in Life Without Children: Stories (2021).
Doyle wrote a historical trilogy called The Last Roundup. The three novels center on Henry Smart, an Irishman who participates in major events in Irish history during the 1900’s. The first novel, A Star Called Henry (1999), follows Smart from his birth at the beginning of the 1900’s through his involvement with the Irish rebellion against the United Kingdom, especially the Easter Rising of 1916. The second novel, Oh, Play That Thing (2004), takes Henry to the United States in 1924, where he becomes involved with gangsters and the jazz trumpet star Louis Armstrong. The final novel, The Dead Republic (2010), follows Smart into old age in Dublin.
Doyle was born in Dublin on May 8, 1958. He received a B.A. degree from Trinity College Dublin in 1980 and taught school for several years before becoming a full-time writer. Doyle wrote a nonfiction book, Rory & Ita (2003), which portrays daily life in Ireland from the 1920’s to the end of the century through the eyes of Doyle’s parents. Doyle has written several children’s stories, including The Giggler Treatment (2000) and its sequel Roger Saves Christmas (2001), Wilderness (2007), and A Greyhound of a Girl (2012).
