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Barry Devlin
BornNovember 27, 1946
Ardboe, Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland
Occupation(s)Musician, director, producer, screenwriter,
Years active1970 - present
Notable workWrote screenplay for BBC 'One's My Mother and Other Stangers' drama series (2016-2017)

Wrote episodes of 'Ballykissangel' and 'The Darling Buds of May'.

Played bass on 'Dearg Doom' with Horslips

Barry Devlin (born 27 November 1946) is an Irish musician, screenwriter, producer and director.

Early life

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Devlin is from Moortown in Ardboe,[1] County Tyrone. He grew up on a farm in Ardboe, on the edge of Lough Neagh,[2] with his mother and six sisters. His mother, Eileen O’Hare, had a great interest in literature and so growing up, Barry’s home was filled with books. There was no electricity in Ardboe village until 1962 and no water until 1964, so due to boredom, reading became something of great importance to Barry in his early life.[3] In 1964, he decided he would enter a seminary and train to become a Columban priest.[1] His Protestant mother approved the idea of Barry entering the priesthood but his father, being a Catholic general merchant,[3] was completely against the notion.

His sister Polly Devlin recognised that entering priesthood would be a life-changing decision for Barry and so she brought him to London in 1964 to provide him with an experience and change from Tyrone. Polly was a features editor for Vogue Magazine at the time and was regularly surrounded by supermodels at the time she brought him over.[3] Barry later realised that this was her attempt to influence him not to pursue a career as a priest, as he says himself “It was Like bringing Jesus up onto the mountain and showing him the world”.[3] Polly's efforts did not prevent Barry from entering the seminary in the September of 1964 however, he left the seminary after four years following a crisis of faith and has been an atheist ever since.[4]

In his final two years in the seminary, he began to study a BA in English at University College Dublin,[5] in which he completed a masters in too. Whilst studying for his MA at UCD, he befriended the band member to be, Jim Lockhart.[4] In the years before Horslips became big, Barry joined a graphics company as a screenwriter.

Career with Horslips

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He was in the pioneering Irish Celtic rock band Horslips as the bass player, vocalist, and unofficial frontman.[6]Horslips reunited from 2004 - 2006,[7] and again from 2009 - 2019.

Across the course of the band's lifetime, Barry was responsible for co-writing and singing material for a collection of their albums. He composed a range of genres for the band, from their more folk-style albums like “Happy To Meet - Sorry To Part”, to their more cemented rock sound in albums like “Man Who Built America”.[8] In the ten years of the band's operation, they consistently toured in Ireland, Europe and the U.S. [8]

Barry Devlin, (centre stage) playing bass with Horslips

Rock history shows that the fusion of rock with Irish traditional music that Horslips produced was as progressive and unique as any music hybrid around these days. It was a direct precursor to The Pogues rendition of a punk and Irish traditional fusion. Bob Geldof and The Boomtown Rats alongside U2, openly admit that without the music of Barry Devlin and Horslips, they may well have not existed. [9]

Solo Career

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After the breakup of Horslips, Devlin released the 1983 solo album Breaking Star Codes[10], which was released by RTÉ Records.

After Horslips split up for the first time, Lapsed Catholics was the first feature film he wrote following his work in production.[11]Lapsed Catholics was a product of Windmill Lane Productions, again showing Barry’s ties back to the music industry.[12]

His progression into producing and filming stems from his connection with music as he produced U2’s early demos in 1978, revisiting the producer role for them again in 1982 and 1983 for more demos.[12] From there, he produced a number of U2 videos[1], for example, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For and All I Want Is You. [12]

He has also been a writer for radio and screen, originating the radio detective drama Baldi and writing episodes for the television series Ballykissangel and The Darling Buds of May and the screenplay for the film A Man of No Importance (1994).[13] He wrote the screenplays for the five episodes of the television series My Mother and Other Strangers, which aired in 2016.[14] He co-wrote with Paul J. Bolger Hound, a graphic novel trilogy based on the Ulster Cycle that was limited in release from 2014 to 2018 before Dark Horse published an omnibus edition.[15][16][17][18] In 2015, Devlin won the Best Writer Published in Ireland award at the Irish Comic News alongside Paul for Hound.[19] In 2022, Devlin also won the Legend Award at the Northern Ireland Music Prize, which is an award for "an individual or band that has made a significant contribution to the world of music."[20]

Family

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His sister, Marie Devlin, is a school teacher and writer, who published Over Nine Waves, a collection of traditional Irish myths and legends, in 1994. She was married to the Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney, from 1965 until the poet's death in 2013. Barry has six sisters; Anne, Marie, Polly, Valerie, Claire, and Helen.[3] One of his six sisters is Polly Devlin, the writer and broadcaster, was awarded the OBE for services to literature. Her first book, All Of Us There, is now a Virago Modern Classic. She made a documentary film The Daisy Chain and now is a professor at Columbia University, New York.[21]

Relationships

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After leaving the priesthood, Barry's first romantic interest was Vibeke Steineger, Miss Norway 1970 from Bergen, but the relationship never progressed into anything serious. The woman Barry married and spent his adult life with is Caroline Erskine. She is a broadcaster and journalist and they met at the first-ever Horslips gig in 1971.[3]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Savage, Joanne (1 May 2014). "'It was finding the feral in Irish trad and rocking out'". The News Letter. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  2. ^ Lynch, D (5 July 2009). "'Horslips was just a bunch of guys from an ad agency' – Barry Devlin on becoming Irish rock and roll royalty". Irish Independent. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Egan, Barry (4 July 2009). "Barry Devlin: Between rock and a hard place". Irish Independent. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
  4. ^ a b O'Rourke, Frances (18 August 2014). "First Encounters: Barry Devlin and Jim Lockhart". The Irish Times. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
  5. ^ Cunningham, M. (2013). Horslips : tall tales ; the official biography. O’brien Press.
  6. ^ Eder, Bruce. "Horslips: Biography". Allmusic. Retrieved 20 January 2011.
  7. ^ "Re-Group & Roll Back". www.horslips.ie. Retrieved 29 July 2021.
  8. ^ a b Not stated (18 November 1983). "NEW RELEASE FROM BARRY DEVLIN". Munster Express. p. 18. Retrieved 23 November 2024.
  9. ^ Brennan, Patrick (16 November 2000). "Horslips revival rides into town". Irish Examiner. p. 35. Retrieved 23 November 2024.
  10. ^ Not stated (10 March 2021). "Barry Devlin – Breaking Star Codes". Rock Roots: The Irish Rock Music Archive. Retrieved 23 November 2024.
  11. ^ Not stated (2 March 1988). "Horslips of a Different Colour". Irish Press. p. 6. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
  12. ^ a b c Media Centre, The BBC (2 November 2016). "Interview with Barry Devlin, Writer". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 23 November 2024.
  13. ^ A Man of No Importance at AllMovie
  14. ^ Lazarus, Susanna (19 February 2016). "Hattie Morahan and Mad Men's Aaron Staton cast in BBC1 drama My Mother and Other Strangers". RadioTimes. Archived from the original on 20 February 2016.
  15. ^ Johnston, Rich (16 August 2015). "Hound: Defender – A Celtic Comics Odyssey". Bleeding Cool. Retrieved 2 December 2022.
  16. ^ Tom,   (7 February 2016). "Comic Book Review: Hound: Protector". Geek Ireland. Retrieved 2 December 2022.
  17. ^ Brooke, David (3 February 2022). "An oral history of 'Hound': Paul Bolger details how the Irish myth made its way to Dark Horse". AIPT Comics. Retrieved 2 December 2022.
  18. ^ O'Mahony, Don (13 July 2022). "All in the gutter: 10 graphic novels with star quality". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 2 December 2022.
  19. ^ Ferguson, David (5 December 2015). "ICN Awards Winners 2015". Irish Comic News. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 9 August 2023.
  20. ^ Newsdesk, The Hot Press (18 August 2022). "Horslips' Barry Devlin to be honoured with Legend Award at Northern Ireland Music Prize". Hotpress. Retrieved 23 November 2024.
  21. ^ Molony, Julia (25 May 2019). "Polly Devlin: 'After learning I was abused I spent 14 years in therapy'". The Belfast Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
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