"The Country Boy" tours nation with 1950s emigration tale

The Country Boy, a play written by John Murphy in 1959, is on tour around Ireland. The Irish Times calls it “a gentle, old-fashioned hymn to the Irish emigrant, a theme which, five years later, would receive a more sophisticated and cutting-edge treatment in Brian Friel’s 'Philadelphia, Here I Come!'".
The play tells the story of a Mayo-born emigrant who returns home for a visit, fifteen years after he left for New York. On his visit home, his troubles are revealed, including alcoholism, unhappy marriage and regret.

The play is getting good reviews and after its opening in Armagh, is touring Virginia, Coleraine, Roscommon, Belfast, Cookstown, Dun Laoghaire and Tallaght.

See a review at Roscrea Online.