Samuel Beckett is regarded as one of the finest authors, playwrights, directors and poets that Ireland has ever produced, winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969 and being responsible for plays and other works that included Waiting for Godot, Watt and Endgame. He died on this day (Dec 22) in 1989.

In Findmypast’s records, you can learn about someone like Samuel Beckett from birth and throughout their lives. With a combination of birth, death and marriage records, census records, military records, newspaper records and more, a comprehensive picture of some of the most iconic Irish men and women can be painted.

Using newspapers, you can find contemporary reports of Beckett’s life, such as his stabbing in Paris in 1938, as reported in the Dundee Evening Telegraph.

Or reviews of his work, as featured in Books of the Day in the Yorkshire Post in April, 1931.

Or him playing his part in boosting actors’ careers with his plays, as mentioned here in the Yorkshire Post, December 1955.

In fact, you can find contemporary reports on every celebrated Irish artist from 1710-1955, including:

Oscar Wilde

James Joyce

 

W.B. Yeats


And more. To discover more about the lives of your Irish heroes, visit Findmypast today.

For more stories on tracing your Irish heritage from Findmypast click here.