National playwriting award for Mountain Grove-based writer

Jeff Green | Jul 07, 2011

Local author, Glenys O'Connell, has received the top award for the Gaelic version of her short play, Ciara's Coming Home. The play won first prize for drama (Canadian Authors) at the Oireachtas Gaeilge Cheanada festival, held in Tamworth over the Canada Day weekend.

The festival, which celebrates Irish language and culture, is the largest of its kind in North America.

The English language version of the play was staged in several venues in Ireland six years ago as part of the All Ireland One Act Drama Festival, and won two awards at the time. The Tamworth award increases the likelihood that the play will now be staged on this side of the Atlantic, said O'Connell. In addition to receiving a medal and certificate, her name will be engraved on the perpetual trophy for the event.

“I am delighted. It is one of two plays that I have written that have actually been performed. It is set in modern day Ireland, and is basically about family dynamics. The title character, Ciara, has moved to the United States, and the play is about the reaction of her family in Ireland when she goes home with her husband for a visit,” said O'Connell.

Glenys and her husband, Adrian, moved to Arden from Ireland five years ago, and they moved to their current home on Brock Road in Mountain Grove recently. She says, "This area has an enviable tradition of being very supportive of the many artists, writers and musicians who live here.”

In addition to writing plays, Glenys O'Connell has written a number of suspense novels, fiction and non-fiction children’s books, and children's text books. She is a psychology graduate of Queen's University, Kingston, and trained and worked as a counsellor in Ireland and the U.K.

She has been commissioned to write two books by the U.K. publisher of the Need2Know series. “Depression – the Essential Guide” (2009) is widely available in bookstores and libraries throughout the British Isles as well as on Amazon, and the second, “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – An Essential Guide” is to be published in September.

Up till now her books have all been published by mainstream publishing companies in the U.S. and U.K., and have been sold throughout the English speaking world, with one title even translated into German. But with the increased popularity of e-books, O'Connell plans to experiment soon by publishing two e-books independently.

“It's an exciting time in the book industry,” she said. “A lot of writers are now working on independently published projects, which is something I'm also looking at.”

Currently, Glenys is working on a guide to novel writing, a subject she has taught in the classroom and online. Also in the pipeline is a murder mystery novel set in a small Ontario village.

“People around here joke that if I publish the latter, I might have to move,” she said.

With the kudos of the new award under her belt and the publicity generated by the Tamworth event, O'Connell said she is looking forward to the possibility of the English language version of Ciara's Coming Home being produced by small theatre groups throughout Canada and the U.S..

All O'Connell's books are available on Amazon.com and she enjoys hearing from readers at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.