James Plunkett Kelly was born on 21 May 1920, at Sandymount in Dublin.
He was educated at the Synge Street Christian Brothers School, and the
Municipal School of Music, Camden St., Dublin, playing violin and
viola. He became clerk in Dublin Gas Co., 1937, and later a full-time
trade union official; working under Jim Larkin, April 1946-47, who
later featured as a character in "Strumpet City".
In the mid-1950s he joined Radio Éireann as a drama assistant and began
his literary career with a series of radio plays. In 1961 he was
appointed one of the first two directors when the television service
began, some becoming an Executive Producer.
His is probably best known as author of the novel
Strumpet City (1980), first
published in 1969. Its television adaptation by RTÉ became one of the
station's most successful drama productions.
The inaugural James Plunkett Memorial Award Ceremony was held on 1 June
2004. In honour of his most famous novel there is also a Strumpet City
prize , for a story set anywhere in Ireland during the period
1907-1914.