Philip Rooney was an Irish novelist, broadcaster and journalist best known for his 1946 novel Captain Boycott - adapted into a 1947 film starring Stewart Granger - and competed in the literature competition at the 1948 London Olympic Games with an extract from that novel. From Collooney, County Sligo, the son of school teachers Henry and Margaret Rooney, he was educated at Camphill school in Collooney, where his parents taught, and later at Mungret College. He worked as a bank clerk until the success of his first novel, All Out to Win, in 1935, after which he continued to publish, sometimes under the pen name Frank Phillips, while working in print journalism and broadcasting. He was a radio critic for The Irish Times before moving to Radio Eireann, where in 1947 he was named assistant to the head of general features, going on to become head of features for the broadcaster.
Arts
