Anthony Roche was born in Dublin in 1951 and graduated from
Trinity College, Dublin, with a First-Class Honours B.A. in
English in 1973. He attended the University of California at Santa
Barbara, where he was awarded an M.A. in English and a Ph.D.
for a dissertation on J.M. Synge. Having taught in the U.S. for the
1980s, he returned to Ireland where he was a Professor in the School
of English, Drama and Film at University College Dublin, retiring
in 2016. He is married to the writer Katy Hayes; they have a son,
Merlin, and a daughter, Lily, and live in Monkstown, County
Dublin. He has published widely on Irish drama, especially
on Brian Friel. His most recent book, The Irish Dramatic
Revival, 1899-1939 (Bloomsbury, 2015), includes a
chapter ‘Bernard Shaw: The Absent Presence’.
