Life
?1849-[?]; b. Kilkenny; cleric and dramatist; numerous plays of which
The Only Way (n.d.) was a success; biography of his brother W.
G. Wills [see infra], and revised edition of father’s Illustrious
Irishmen as The Irish Nation (see infra); d. Eastbourne 1913.
PI OCIL.
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Criticism
Allardyce Nicoll, A History of English Drama 1660-1900 [2nd edn.]
(Cambridge UP 1959), Vol. 5, p.210; see also Irish Book Lover,
Vol. 8.
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References
D. J. O’Donoghue, Poets of Ireland (Dublin: Hodges
Figgis 1912), gives bio-dates: b. about 1840.
Allardyce Nicoll, A History of English Drama 1660-1900 [2nd edn.] (Cambridge UP 1959), Vol. 5, cites The Only Way as being successfully produced by Martin Harvey (Lyceum, Feb. 1899).
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Notes
Momento: a theatrical programme of The Only Way by Freeman Wills,
a dramatisation of [Charles] Dicken’s Tale of Two Cities (Royal
Theatre Dublin, 14 Nov. 1906), printed on white silk by Martin Harvey
& Co., and encased with others of the same kind, is framed at at Mulligans
[public house], Poolbeg St., Dublin.
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