Patricia O'Connor

Patricia O'Connor (4 December 1905 – 2 February 1983) was an Irish playwright, novelist and teacher.

Early life and family Patricia O'Connor was born Henrietta Norah O'Connor on 4 December 1905 at Sheephaven coastguard station, Dunfanaghy, County Donegal. She was known to her family as Norah. Her parents were Patrick, coastguard and sailor, and his wife Annie May O'Connor (née Fallon). She had two sisters and a brother, her elder sister was the historian and vice-principal of Portadown High School, Theresa Margaret O'Connor. Her father was transferred to Howth, County Dublin in 1912, and O'Connor attended Celbridge Collegiate School, County Kildare as a border. She remained there after her father was reassigned to Donegal in 1913, and later in November 1918 to Peterhead in Scotland. As her family were Church of Ireland, this relocation may have been due to the Irish political climate.

From the establishment of the UGT in 1940, O'Connor focused almost exclusively on writing theatrical drama. She wrote 8 plays for the Group between 1942 and 1959, 5 of which were staged. This made her the most-produced female Irish dramatist of the period. She was a committee member of Belfast P.E.N. Club, serving as chair in 1951. She resigned from the Club in 1953 after she accused Richard Hayward of being autocratic and hypocritical, and that he used his position as chair to silence his critics. Her 1942 play Highly efficient, a critique of the educational system, was her most successful play. It ran for 5 weeks, was later re-run for another 3 weeks in 1944, and was broadcast in 1945 on BBC Radio Ulster. She and her husband moved from Killough to Belfast in 1958.