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George Fitzmaurice was born in 1877 in the family home, Bedford House, just outside Listowel on the Ballylongford road. With his father’s death in 1891, the family was forced to move to a farmhouse in Kilcara, outside the village of Duagh. The circumstances surrounding the family meant none of its members was ever quite considered of the landed class, and neither did they fit in as locals. Local stories tell of ‘Master George’ being seen composing his plays in the woods, in the parlour of his home, as well as in a large 15 acre top field on their farm. George was inspired by the colourful characters he met, as well as the people’s stumbling attempts, at the end of the 19th Century, to speak English instead of Irish. He moved to Dublin where he was employed by the Civil Service. His earliest writings were published in Dublin weeklies between 1900 and 1907. George enlisted in the British Army in 1916 and drove an ambulance in World War One.