Finding Danny Morrison

Several months ago at an author event I met an interesting young couple.  After graduating from high school Joe decided he wanted to live in Ireland and find his “tribe”.  Joe lived in Ireland for 17 years with a one year hiatus in France which didn’t turn out as expected.  Joe met Joanne a fine Irish girl and they were married in West Ireland in a unique pagan festival officiated by a former Irish Catholic priest.  It should be clear that Joe and Joanne are interesting people.

Joe asked me if my fictional character, Ian Murphy, was patterned after Danny Morrison.  I told him I didn’t have any idea who Danny Morrison was.  Joe was very enthusiastic about Danny, telling me he was the former National Director of Publicity for Sinn Fein, an author and a playwright.  He was also a political prisoner for years.  Joe said he had written a book about the Troubles called The Wrong Man that critics called one of the best.

I read The Wrong Man in just a week.  The story is from the perspective of a typical working class IRA volunteer.  The prologue is a graphic scene of an interrogation that was difficult to read, but necessary.  The book has strong themes of family, dedication, nationalism and betrayal.  To understand the Troubles, The Wrong Man, is a must read.

I wanted to know more about Danny Morrison so I visited his website and Wikipedia.  I learned that he adapted his novel, The Wrong Man, into a play.  The play has been produced both in Ireland and London and received excellent reviews.  I searched for copies of the play on the internet and couldn’t find it.  I asked my new friend Joe if he had a copy, he didn’t.  Joe suggested I e-mail Danny Morrison and ask where I could purchase a copy.  I had grave doubts that would be successful because I couldn’t imagine that an Irish writer would take the time to respond to an unknown American writer.

I was wrong.  I e-mailed Danny Morrison and in a day had a response.  He told me he had a copy of his play but couldn’t remember where he stored it electronically.  He told me to give him a few days.  To say that I was surprised was an understatement.  The next day I received an e-mail with his play attached, and a brief note that he had found the play and was searching for other material to send me.  I was more than willing to purchase his work and was amazed at his generosity.

He sent me a review of the play by critic Dominic Cavendish published in the Daily Telegraph.  In addition, he sent me an article he wrote for The Observer, a London newspaper, called ‘Writing Oneself out of History.’  These were fascinating but he didn’t address the question of why he adapted his novel to a stage play and how he made the conversion.

Then the e-mail stopped.  I waited a week and wrote again to ask him to share his reasons for writing the play and how he made the transition.  It’s been 18 days since I sent my last e-mail.  I doubt if he’s going to respond.  I was hoping to have a dialogue with another writer about writing.  I guess that’s not going to happen.  I don’t understand the change from being open and sharing to silence.

It’s a shame, really.