The John Boyd Collection

Tuesday 10 May 2005

John Boyd at work in the BBC

We are now pleased to announce that the Arts Council of Northern Ireland have granted funding to begin work on turning this extensive collection into one of the foremost cultural reference resources in Northern Ireland.

A life-long progressive bookman and left-wing intellectual, his extraordinary life spanned most of the 20th century.  From Belfast working-class scholarship boy to lecturer, editor, BBC producer, mentor and dramatist, Boyd's cumulative work in reflecting and questioning the world around him has left a fascinating legacy to society.

Over the course of the next year we plan to sort, conserve and catalogue the collection that has been gifted to the Library, in order to make this unique resource available to the public.  It is hoped that this valuable collection will add much to the understanding of our history of the last seventy years.

The Archive, in conjunction with a number of theatre companies from Belfast, will be organising a series of workshops involving young people from schools around the city.  These will focus on the John Boyd Collection, but will give the young people the opportunity to study a writer's life, try their hand at writing about the world around them, and learn what it takes to write for the stage.  This will culminate in their work being performed in the Linen Hall, in conjunction with a major exhibition displaying the collection at the end of this year.

Our hope is that the John Boyd Project will do justice to the life of one of the most important cultural figures of the last century.  It will focus on the life and times of both Boyd and his contemporaries, while enabling a new generation to discover one of the most alternative and distinctive literary voices of 20th century Belfast, using his inspiration to explore the stage as a vehicle for their own views of the world.

For further details please contact the curator on

(028) 9087 2218 or E: theatrearchive@linenhall.com