Robin Glendinning

Robert James Glendinning (born 1 September 1938), known as Robin Glendinning, is a Northern Irish playwright and former politician.

Born in Belfast, the brother of Will Glendinning,[1] Robin grew up in County Armagh and studied at Rockport School, Campbell College and Trinity College Dublin.[2][3] He taught English and history at Omagh Academy for eleven years.[2][3]

Glendinning was a founder of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, and left teaching in 1973 to become its full-time political organiser.[2][3] He stood for the party in Mid Ulster at the 1973 Northern Ireland Assembly election and Armagh at the February 1974 general election, but missed election on both occasions.[3][4][5]

In 1976, Glendinning returned to teaching, working at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution,[3] although he remained politically active, campaigning for the Alliance Party into the 1980s,[1] and presenting a submission to the New Ireland Forum in 1983.[6] He also began writing short stories, some of which were published in the Irish Times, as a result of which he won the Hennessey Award.[1] Following this, he switched to write plays, several of which were produced for BBC Television and Radio. These early works included The Artist, Condemning Violence, Culture Vultures, Faith, Mumbo Jumbo and Stuffing It.[1][3] In 1991, his Donny Boy won "Best New Play" at the inaugural TMA Awards,[7] and this success inspired him to again quit teaching, this time to become a full-time writer.[3][8]

References
  1. John Stanley Bull, British and Irish dramatists since World War II, pp.73–74
  2. Gordon Lucy and Elaine MacClure, Cool Britannia?, p.66
  3. John Peacock, Best Radio Plays of 1991, p.1
  4. "Mid Ulster 1973–1982", Northern Ireland Elections
  5. "Armagh 1973–1983", Northern Ireland Elections
  6. "New Ireland Forum Report, 2 May 1984", CAIN Web Service
  7. "Previous Winners (1991–2004)", UK Theatre
  8. Some of his later radio dramatizations of real events (the British General Strike, 1926, the Dunkirk Evacuation, 1940, War in the Falklands, 1982) are listed at []
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