from today’s Munster Express;

NEW COLLECTION OF TOM O’BRIEN PLAYS Nine Irish Plays

Tom O’Brien grew up near Kilmacthomas, Co. Waterford, and, between working at the local cereal factory, he played in a showband. He emigrated to England, where work was plentiful after the Second World War.

He knew he wanted to be a writer, and I suppose an entertainer, and London was the biggest stage he could find. In his way, he had the ambition like Tennessee Williams, who urged “Make voyages, attempt them. There is nothing else”.

He knew ambition and fame would not be satisfied in Ireland, as many would-be creatives, artists and seekers of adventure discovered.

He earned good money in the construction industry as a welder and carpenter in the Cricklewood/Kilburn/Camden Town area of London. The music impresario, Vince Power from Co Waterford, was a friend, and they sold furniture together. Tom was Power’s best man at the wedding.

There was a network of larger Irish pubs that staged entertainments and plays, and Tom O’Brien had his early plays staged at The Old Red Lion and The King’s Head in Islington, the Tabard in West London and Pentameters Theatre in NW London. Eventually, O’Brien had his plays performed all over London, leading to a New York tour and a performance in Winnipeg as well.

Over the years, he ensured his plays were published, used Amazon to build his name, and longed for recognition in Ireland.

He has now published Nine Irish Plays with TomTom Theatre, and they are available on Amazon.

This collection includes Money From America, which started life as a TV script (he was ambitious) but found a theatre audience at the Tabard Theatre.

My favourites in this collection are Queenie and The Missing Postman.

Queenie is the story of Victoria Dwan, who spent most of her life in a mental institution called St Joseph’s and found herself ‘released’ into the community. This is a powerful mix of hardship, tragedy, and her discovery of ‘second sight’, as she struggled to separate the present from the past.

The Missing Postman tells the real and imagined world of two twenty-year-olds, Zeb and Zoe, who seek revenge for separate but unhappy childhoods as small-time robbers, one from a postman.

This is a bizarre but gripping story of death, survival and brutality.

Tom O’Brien’s latest play with music, The Men Who Sank Beneath The Sea – A Copper Coast Story, will be staged at Gealach Gorm Theatre, with Angela Mulcahy directing, in 24-25th July 2026.