Life
1918-1963; b. Dublin; Abbey and Radio Éireann actor; stage-manager
at Gate Theatre; plays include Thy Dear Father (Abbey, 30 Aug.
1943); The Black Stranger (Players’ Theatre, Cork [Cork Opera
House], 26 Feb. 1945), a play about the Great Famine produced for the
centenary; Healy played the Jesuit director in Hugh Leonard’s Stephen
D (1962), and died suddenly in the theatre while playing the same
part in London in 1963. DIW DIL
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Criticism
Robert Hogan, ‘Introduction’, Seven Irish Plays (Minnesota
UP 1967).
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Commentary
Margaret Kelleher [Mater Dei], lecturing at the Yeats Summer
School, remarks that The Black Stranger was well-received, and
that reviewers of the time were ‘particularly drawn to what is a
central preoccupation of Healy’s, ‘the quest for emigration’;
‘Patrick’s argument is that by emigrating, the son will make
the famine “matter” since “none will be left to carry on
when things get right again”.’ (Report The Irish Times, 8
Aug. 1996.)
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