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WF
Marshall The Bard of Tyrone 1888 - 1959 Playwright and Novelist In addition to his Ulster dialect version of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, Marshall wrote a three-act country kitchen comedy entitled The Corduroy Bag. Although the text is available, as yet, it has not been published. He also wrote a one-act play for incorporation for a Presbyterian pageant on eighteenth century emigration from Co. Londonderry and the foundation of New Londonderry, New Hampshire. 1948 saw the publication of Planted by a River, Marshall's only novel. Two thousand copies were printed, of which 1,700 were sold within seven weeks. The novel is set in the reign of Queen Anne (1702-1714), an era when the Siege of Derry was still recent history. The events recounted take place in the environs of Omagh and the Sperrins and concern Alick Cunningham, a young man who sets out on a dangerous journey which brings him adventure and romance. There is duelling and bare-fisted fighting, there is an ambush in Gortin Gap, there are close escapes and raparees and all sorts of excitements, as well as a love story. It was a historical novel reminiscent of the work of Robert Louis Stevenson and it attracted favourable review from St John Ervine. Mashall, the novelist and playwright, is not as familiar as the poet. However, in time this is a deficiency which may be put right.
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