Editing Brian Friel (section)

==Personal life==
[[File:Brian Friel's Residence, Omagh - geograph.org.uk - 197696 (retouched).jpg|thumb|right|Friel's childhood home at [[Omagh]] in County Tyrone]]
Friel was born in 1929 at [[Knockmoyle]], Northern Ireland,<ref name="BT_will_profile">{{Cite news |last=Collins |first=Liam |date=19 September 2016 |title=£4.29... the value NI literary giant Brian Friel put on own writings, according to will |work=The [[Belfast Telegraph]] |url=https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/429-the-value-ni-literary-giant-brian-friel-put-on-own-writings-according-to-will/35058967.html?}}</ref> before the family moved to nearby Killyclogher, both places close to [[Omagh]] in County Tyrone.<ref name=dies_irish_times/> His exact birth date and name are ambiguous.{{refn|group=note|name=Alpha}} His father was Patrick Friel, a primary school teacher and later a councillor on Londonderry Corporation, the local city council in [[Derry]]. Friel's mother was Mary (née McLoone), postmistress of [[Glenties]], [[County Donegal]]. The family moved to [[Derry]] when Friel was ten years old. There he attended [[St Columb's College]] (the same school attended by [[Seamus Heaney]], [[John Hume]], [[Seamus Deane]], [[Phil Coulter]], [[Eamonn McCann]] and [[Paul Brady]]).<ref name=dies_irish_times/><ref>{{cite news|first=Tom|last=McGurk|author-link=Tom McGurk|url=http://www.sbpost.ie/commentandanalysis/the-bloody-truth-has-finally-set-them-free-49984.html|title=The bloody truth has finally set them free|work=The Sunday Business Post|date=20 June 2010}}</ref>

Friel received his B.A. from [[St Patrick's College, Maynooth]] (1945–1948), and qualified as a teacher at [[St Mary's University College, Belfast|St. Joseph's Training College, Belfast]] in [[Belfast]], 1949–1950. He married Anne Morrison in 1954; they had four daughters and one son. Between 1950 and 1960, he worked as a maths teacher in the Derry primary and intermediate school system, taking leave in 1960 to pursue a career as a writer, living off his savings. In the late 1960s, the Friels moved from Derry to Muff, County Donegal, before settling outside [[Greencastle, County Donegal|Greencastle]], County Donegal.

Friel supported [[Irish nationalism]] and was a member of the [[Nationalist Party (Northern Ireland)|Nationalist Party]].<ref name="obituary_irish_times2"/> [[Taoiseach]] [[Charles Haughey]] nominated Friel to serve as a member of [[Seanad Éireann]] (the Irish Senate) in 1987,<ref>{{cite news|first=Deaglan|last=De Breadun|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/wisdom-of-former-taoisigh-should-not-be-ignored-1.626707|title=Wisdom of former taoisigh should not be ignored|newspaper=The Irish Times|date=24 July 2010|access-date=16 June 2024|quote=Choices made by previous taoisigh have included the playwright Brian Friel, distinguished public servants such as TK Whitaker and Maurice Hayes, and prominent Northern Ireland figures such as John Robb, Seamus Mallon, Bríd Rodgers and the late Gordon Wilson}}</ref> where he served until 1989.<ref name=oireachtas_db>{{cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/member/Brian-Friel.S.1989-06-26/|title=Brian Friel|work=Oireachtas Members Database|access-date=10 January 2020}}</ref> 

After a long illness, Friel died on 2 October 2015 in Greencastle and is buried in the cemetery in [[Glenties]], also in Donegal.<ref name=dies_irish_times/><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.rte.ie/news/2015/1002/731871-brian-friel|title=Playwright Brian Friel dies aged 86|publisher=RTÉ News|date=2 October 2015|access-date=2 October 2015}}</ref> He was survived by his wife Anne and children Mary, Judy, Sally and David. Another daughter, Patricia ("Paddy"), predeceased him.<ref name=dies_irish_times>{{cite news|first=Rachel|last=Flaherty|url=http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/brian-friel-giant-of-world-theatre-dies-aged-86-1.2375950|title=Brian Friel, 'giant of world theatre', dies aged 86|newspaper=The Irish Times|date=2 October 2015|access-date=2 October 2015}}</ref> While leaving the bulk of his estate to his wife, he bequeathed a house or apartment to each of his living children, and shared his literary estate between them and the children of Patricia.<ref name="BT_will_profile"/> His literary executors were his wife and a friend, the former director for literature at the Arts Council of England, Paul McKeone.<ref name="BT_will_profile"/>