The Great Hunger, Tom Mac Intyre's internationally celebrated play of 1983, and The Gallant John-Joe, his most recent dramatic work, show Mac Intyre to be one of the most daringly and excitingly original Irish writers working today. The Great Hunger is Mac Intyre's version of Patrick Kavanagh's long poem of the same name. It represents the life and dreams of Patrick Maguire, Monaghan small farmer and potato-gatherer, a man suffering from sexual and spiritual starvation. The play fuses image, movement and language into a classic of contemporary Irish drama.

TOM MAC INTYRE, born in Cavan in 1931, is the author of many works of fiction, poetry and plays, including Stories of the Wandering Moon (2000), The Great Hunger and The Gallant John-Joe (2002).