Marie Jones has played a significant part in the development of a popular audience for the theater in both Ulster and the Republic of Ireland and has been a major force in challenging traditions in the deeply divided communities of Northern Ireland. Although several of her plays have been produced in Great Britain, her work has mainly been featured on the Irish touring circuit. Only three of her many plays have been published.

Jones was born on 29 August 1955 in Protestant working-class East Belfast. Her sole encounter with theater as a child was the annual pantomimes at Belfast's Grand Opera House, which she remembered in an unpublished 1997 interview as "magical" experiences. At fifteen she attended a production by James Young, the doyen of Ulster comedy, at the Group Theatre; afterward she wrote to Young, requesting a chance to act, and he invited her to take a part in his...