Brian Friel was born near Omagh, County Tyrone, in Northern Ireland, on January 9,1929, to Patrick, a teacher, and Christina (MacLoone) Friel. When he was ten, the family moved to Londonderry, where his father became the principal at Long Tower School, and the young Friel attended St. Columb's College from 1941 to 1946. In 1946, he enrolled in a seminary at St. Patrick's college in Maynooth, from which he graduated with a B.A. in 1948. Friel subsequently abandoned his plans to enter the priesthood, and entered St. Joseph's Teacher Training College in Belfast, which he attended from 1949 to 1950.

From 1950 to 1960, Friel worked as a teacher in Londonderry, during which time many of his short stories were published in the New Yorker. Encouraged by this success, Friel quit teaching in 1960 to become a full-time writer of short stories and radio plays, as well as stage plays, which were produced at the...