Brinsley MacNamara, whose real name was John Weldon, was born near Devlin, Co Westmeath, in 1890. He joined the Abbey Theatre Company in 1909 and toured with it in the United States. In 1912 he decided to devote his time to writing and The Valley of the Squinting Windows, published in 1918, established him as a leading Irish writer, though it raised a storm of violent protest. He went on to write six novels, two books of short stories and many plays for the Abbey of which he was, for a time, a director. He died in February 1963.
