James Plunkett's reputation as a novelist was established almost overnight with the publication in 1969 of Strumpet City, a sprawling panorama of Dublin life during the years of labor unrest before World War I. The book was the most popular work of fiction to appear in Ireland in years and soon became an international best-seller with translations into German, Dutch, Spanish, Flemish, Swedish, Russian, and Japanese. Already respected as a playwright and writer of short stories that had been appearing since the early 1940s in Irish periodicals, anthologies, and his own collected editions, Plunkett became recognized with the publication of his first novel as one of Ireland's most important literary figures.

He was born James Plunkett Kelly on the seacoast in Dublin, midway between the respectable suburbs of Sandymount and the pawnshops, public houses, and tenements of Ringsend. His parents were Patrick and Cecilia Cannon Kelly. His boyhood, particularly...