John Weldon

Brinsley MacNamara was born as John Weldon as one of seven children of James Weldon, Delvin schoolmaster. He was an Irish playwright and novelist working for the Abbey Theatre from 1909, where he adopted his stage name. Until 1913 he was a free-lance actor who toured America in 1911. Later he worked as the registrar of the National Gallery of Ireland.

MacNamara is most famous for his first printed novel, Valley of the Squinting Windows, published in 1918. It caused a furor due to its depiction of the mean-minded inhabitants of his native village. He continued to write for many years after the publication of this controversial novel. He sometimes also used the pseudonym Oliver Blythe.

The Glorious Uncertainty was a comedy in three acts, which was published in print no earlier than 1929. The play takes place in a bar in Ballycomoyle, Ireland. The bar owner, along with his friends, is trying to recapture the money previously lost at horse races at a local “Grand National” with a fraud. His wife, however, has different ideas. The play was broadcast in 1970 by Irish television.