Professor Chris Murray Gifted academic and prolific author who was devoted to theatre

Professor Christopher Murray, who has died aged 83, was a leading academic and author of numerous books, including a major biography of playwright Sean O’Casey. Born on December 1, 1940, he was the youngest of eight children in the Murray family who lived in Claregalway, 10km outside Galway city. He developed a keen interest in theatre as a student at University College Galway where he became involved with the Dramatic Society (Dramsoc) and later with An Taibhdhearc theatre.

On the academic front, Murray acquired two primary degrees, one as BA, majoring in English Literature, and the other a BComm, followed by a master’s in English. He worked as an assistant lecturer in English at UCG from 1962 to 1965.

Kathleen Donohue, his future wife, was in the same undergraduate class at UCG and the couple married in 1965. Shortly afterwards, they moved to the US, where Murray had been awarded a fellowship at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

He received a PhD in 1969 for his thesis on Robert William Elliston (1774–1831), the famed English actor, playwright and theatre manager. The PhD was subsequently published by the London-based Society for Theatre Research in 1975.

Murray taught in the English department at the University of New Haven, Connecticut from 1968 to 1970 before returning to Ireland, where in 1971 he became a lecturer at the English department in University College Dublin under the professorship of Denis Donoghue.

His lectures had a strong focus on drama, ranging from Shakespeare to Ibsen, and he developed a life-long speciality in Irish theatre.

He was a co-founder in 1990 of the Centre for Drama Studies, which became part of the School of English, Drama and Film at UCD, offering a range of undergrad and postgrad programmes, including master’s degrees that specialised in directing and playwriting. Murray also set up an exchange of courses with the Gaiety School of Acting.

His UCD career lasted 35 years until his retirement in 2006, with the title of Emeritus Professor of Drama and Theatre History. Over the years, he was a visiting professor at the University of Antwerp in 1990, Waseda University in Tokyo in 1993 and the University of Pecs in Hungary in 1995.

He joined the editorial board of Irish University Review in 1976 and served as editor from 1986 to 1997. He was also president of the International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures from 2000 to 2003.

Murray was a founding member of the Irish Theatre Archive, where he worked with legendary actor Cyril Cusack to preserve the country’s tradition in that sphere. He joined the board of the Gaiety School of Acting in 1986 and became chair in 2011.

A prolific author, his books include Sean O’Casey, Writer at Work: A Critical Biography (2004 and 2006); Twentieth Century Irish Drama: Mirror up to Nation (1997 and 2000) and The Theatre of Brian Friel: Tradition and Modernity (2014). Books he edited include Brian Friel’s Essays, Diaries, Interviews: 1964-1999 (1999); Beckett at 100: Centenary Essays (2006); Selected Plays of George Shiel (2008); Alive in Time: The Enduring Drama of Tom Murphy (2010). He also wrote numerous articles for journals, chapters for books and contributions to literary encyclopaedias. The 2006 paperback edition of his O’Casey biography runs to 590 pages and has been compared favourably with Richard Ellmann’s life of James Joyce. Reviewing Murray’s book for this newspaper, Emer O’Kelly described it as “monumental” and “a work of huge scholarship: detached critical analysis combined with an obvious warm affection for O’Casey that manages to avoid hagiography”. Murray’s Twentieth Century Irish Drama volume was praised by a reviewer in the Irish Independent who wrote that “the completeness of the research... as well as the brevity, pithiness and absence of scholarly affectation, combine to provide a book which will be greatly appreciated before and behind the curtain”.

Christopher Murray died last Monday at St Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin after a short illness.

He is survived by Kathleen (Kate), his children Paul, Felicity and Chris and grandchildren Orianna, Nicholas, Sam, Max, Madeline and Pearse.

He is also sadly missed by his sisters Mary and Sheila, his brother-in-law Liam, son-in-law Stephen, daughtersin-law Miriam and Claire, as well as extended family and friends.

His funeral mass took place on Wednesday at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Killiney and was followed by burial in Shanganagh Cemetery, Shankill.