Roddy Doyle :: essays research papers

Roddy Doyle is an amazing writer and is seen by his friends as a studious-looking and down-to-earth kind of guy. He is one of the new breed of young Irish artists who came of age in the 1960’s and 1970’s.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Roddy Doyle was born in May of 1958 in the northern Dublin suburb of Kilbarrack, Ireland. From Roddy Doyle’s point of view, he seemed to have had a happy childhood, especially when he told an interviewer, â€Å" There are memories of my own childhood, running through a field and seeing pheasants fly up, balls of dust under the kitchen table, and my parents happily married.† He also said talking about his childhood that â€Å"The place was mine, and the time was mine.† He was raised in a middle-class family, quite different from the gritty, working-class characters in his books. He attended St. Fintan’s Christian Brothers School in Sutton and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts. He continued his education at University College, Dublin, where he achieved a Bachelors degree in English and geography. He undertook teacher training at Greendale Community School, in Kilbarrack, and after getting certified, he became a member of that schoolâ€⠄¢s faculty. He taught fourteen years at Greendale, where he was known to his students as â€Å"Punk† Doyle because of the earring and the Doc Martens boots he wore. Doyle is currently married to Belinda Doyle and has two sons, Rory and Jack Doyle. Since 1993, Doyle has been dedicated to writing full time.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Doyle’s first novel came in the 1980’s. The novel was titled Your Granny’s a Hunger Striker; Doyle said it was â€Å"brilliant,† but after that it went completely downhill. Later in the 80’s, approximately 1986, he published the first successful novel of his writing career. The name of it was The Commitments, which, with the help of a friend, he published himself under the â€Å"King Farouk† imprint, and sold himself. One copy of his book landed at William Heinemann, a London-based publishing house. Heinemann enjoyed the book so much he decided to publish it himself in 1987. Two years later, Random House published the book in the United States. This was Doyle’s big start. After his success he wrote two more novels, The Snapper, and The Van. The Van was such a well written novel that it was a finalist for the 1991 Booker Prize Award. Finally in 1993, success struck again.