Wesley Burrowes, Irish playwright, Died at 85

Wesley Burrowes was born on April 15, 1930, in Bangor, County Down in Northern Ireland and died on December 31, 2015.

He was an Irish playwright and screenwriter.

Burrowes was best known as the chief scriptwriter on The Riordans and Glenroe, two of the most successful drama series produced by RTÉ Television.

Wesley Burrowes attended the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, a Belfast grammar school, and went on to study French and German at Queen’s University Belfast, graduating in 1952.

He moved to Dublin after his education to work for the Commercial Insurance Company.

Burrowes switched jobs to Córas Tráchtála in 1959, an Irish government body which promoted exports.

Burrowes combined his job there as an adviser on the furniture trade and writer of comedy sketches for well-known performers such as Des Keogh and Rosaleen Linehan.

Wesley, In 1963, became a full-time writer.

His theatrical success was his musical piece ‘Carrie’, which he co-wrote with Michael Coffey and James Douglas.

He has received the Irish Life Drama Competition for his play, in 1969, ‘The Becauseway’, which the author described as belonging to “the tradition of the theater of the absurd”.

He won, in 1970 Irish Life Competition, he won the top award for And All the People Rejoiced.

The series called ‘Glenroe, was developed out of an earlier series which Wesley conceived and wrote for RTÉ in 1980.

This was Bracken, which featured Gabriel Byrne in the lead role of Pat Barry.

He was introduced to TV when he had to replace, Maura Laverty as a script writer on RTÉ Television’s drama series, Tolka Row

In 1959, Wesley was married to actress, Liz Brennan ; they were divorced by the year 1967.
The couple had a daughter, Ciara.

His second wife was Helena Ruuth.

They got married, in 1969 and they have a son, Kim.

Bray, County Wicklow, was his home before his death.

Wesley Burrowes passed away at 85 yrs old.