Frank McMahon was an Irish American author and playwright perhaps best known for his play Borstal Boy

Borstal Boy (play)

Borstal Boy is a play adapted by Frank McMahon from the 1958 autobiographical novel of Irish nationalist Brendan Behan of the same title. The play debuted in 1967 at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, with Frank Grimes as the young Behan...

, an adaptation of the Brendan Behan

Brendan Behan

Brendan Francis Behan was an Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, and playwright who wrote in both Irish and English. He was also an Irish republican and a volunteer in the Irish Republican Army.-Early life:...

 novel of the same title

Borstal Boy

Borstal Boy is an autobiographical 1958 book by Brendan Behan. The story depicts a young, fervently idealistic Behan who loses his naïveté over the three years of his sentence to a juvenile borstal, softening his radical Republican stance and warming to his fellow British prisoners...

, which won Frank a prestigious Tony Award.

Frank McMahon was born in New York on the 20th of September 1919 to Irish parents. His mother hailing from County Mayo in Ireland and his father from County Roscommon. After high school Frank won a scholarship to Fordham university New York and later served as an officer in the US navy.
Later he worked as a copy-righter for TV networks NBC and MCA. Some years after getting married Frank moved with his wife and young children to Ireland where he worked for RTE TV station. He also formed a publishing company called 'Four Masters' publishing which published works by Nora Connolly (daughter of James Connolly) and John Molloy author of Alive Alive Oh among others. He lived out the rest of his days living in Howth, Co.Dublin, Ireland.

Frank deceased from illness on the 22nd of December 1984 at his home on Windgate Rd in Howth, Co. Dublin.

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