Leonard died on Thursday, February 12, 2009, at the age of 82, after a long illness. His centenary is being marked throughout the year in the Co. Dublin village he never really left: an exhibition of his work for the printed page ran in Dalkey Library during the Dalkey Book Festival in June, drawn from the local library collections and from donations by his estate, and further events are expected around the anniversary itself.
Over the course of his long and prolific career, Leonard wrote and adapted several screenplays and books for television, including his adaptation of the James Plunkett novel "Strumpet City" for RTÉ, Ireland's national broadcaster. He also wrote two evocative volumes of autobiography, "Home Before Night" in 1979 and "Out After Dark" in 1989. His weekly column for the Irish Sunday Independent, which ran under the heading "The Curmudgeon," was popular with readers for many years.
Leonard, who was known as Jack to his close friends, was born in Dublin on November 9, 1926, and raised as John Keyes Byrne in Dalkey, the village that would later feature prominently in his writing. He spent fourteen years in the Irish civil service and took on his pen name in the 1950s to hide from his employers his double life as an aspiring, outspoken writer.
In 1959, he married Paule Jacquet. They had a daughter, Danielle. After more than 40 years together, Paule died suddenly in 2000. Leonard eventually found love again, marrying Kathy Hayes in June 2007.
When he died, Irish political leaders praised Leonard's work both as a playwright and a journalist. President Mary McAleese said he would be badly missed by everyone who had enjoyed his company and his counsel over the years, and credited him with a wit all his own and an unusually sharp but forgiving read on human nature.
Read more
Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Brian Cowen recalled the Sunday Independent column, describing Leonard as a man of firm opinions and considerable humor whose writing carried both, and calling the column essential weekly reading that could be relied on for a laugh.
Leonard's best-known plays include "Da," which took the Tony Award for best play in 1978, along with "The Big Birthday," "A Leap in the Dark," "The Poker Session," "The Patrick Pearse Motel," "The Au Pair Man," and "A Life." Three of his plays reached Broadway. A final work, "Magicality," went unperformed in his lifetime; a rehearsed reading of its second act was staged at Dalkey Castle and Heritage Centre in 2012.
Fellow Irish playwright Bernard Farrell, who paid tribute to his friend in the press at the time and recalled his wonderful sense of humor, said Leonard had been in very poor spirits in his final weeks and that the end came peacefully, at around 4:30 a.m. in Dalkey.
Comments