Sam Thompson

Sam(uel) Thompson (21 May 1916 – 15 February 1965) was a Northern Irish playwright best known for his controversial plays Over the Bridge, which exposes sectarianism, and Cemented with Love, which focuses on political corruption. His works fall into the social realist genre but are distinct in their dramatisation of Northern Irish issues; they were ground-breaking in documenting sectarian violence before the eruption of the Troubles. Thompson was the seventh of eight children of a lamp-lighter and part-time sexton of St Clement's Church. He spent most of his working life as a painter in the Belfast shipyards, starting aged 14 at Harland and Wolff and working for Belfast Corporation after the Second World War, and much of his writing draws on these experiences. and is buried in Belfast City Cemetery.

Writing Thompson was encouraged to begin writing for radio in 1955, aged 39, by novelist and radio producer Sam Hanna Bell, who overheard him telling stories of shipyard life in a pub. Thompson offered the play to James Ellis, then director of the Ulster Group Theatre, early in 1958, reportedly saying "I got a play you wouldn't touch with a bargepole!" and for radio by the BBC in Belfast. and focuses on the exploitation of evangelism; it proved neither as controversial nor as successful as Over the Bridge. Intended for broadcast during the 1964 general election year, it was repeatedly postponed due to protests from the BBC in Belfast. After a campaign led by the producer from BBC London, Cemented with Love finally appeared in May 1965 as part of The Wednesday Play series, a few months after Thompson's death.

Thompson had completed a draft of a further stage play, The Masquerade, set in London, before his death.

Bridge

On 10 October 2013 the Connswater Community Greenway announced that the new landmark bridge linking Victoria Park to the old shipyards in East Belfast was to be named the Sam Thompson Bridge. The name was chosen from a shortlist of five by popular vote with Sam Thompson being the preferred choice of 44% of those that took part. This £500,000 bridge is part of the plans from the local Connswater Community Greenway project, who are building a £35 million greenway in east Belfast. The campaign had attracted the support of a number of high-profile people, including Cllr Claire Hanna (SDLP)

Works

Stage plays Over the Bridge (1957) The Evangelist (1963) The Masquerade (not produced)

Television plays Cemented with Love (1965) The Teabreakers (unknown)

Radio Brush in Hand (1956) Tommy Baxter, Shopsteward (1957) The Island Men The General Foreman (1958) The Long Back Street (1959) The Fairmans: Life in a Belfast Working Family (1960–61) A Bed for the Night