| 1929 |
Born Brian Patrick Friel in Killyclogher, Omagh, County Tyrone. |
| 1939 |
Family moves to Derry. Attends Long Tower primary school. |
| 1941 |
Attends secondary school at St. Columb’s College, Derry. |
| 1945 |
Attends St. Patrick’s College Maynooth as a seminarian. Graduates with a BA in 1948 without becoming a priest. |
| 1949 |
Trains as a teacher in St. Joseph’s Training College, Derry. |
| 1950 |
Begins writing short stories. Contract with the New Yorker magazine. |
| 1951 |
Publishes first short story in The Bell. |
| 1954 |
Marries Anne Morrison. They go on to have five children. |
| 1958 |
First radios produced by BBC Belfast. |
| 1959 |
Short story The Skelper appears in the New Yorker. |
| 1960 |
First stage play The Francophile, re-titled Doubtful Paradise, premieres at the Group Theatre, Belfast. Leaves teaching to write full time. |
| 1962 |
Play The Enemy Within premieres at the Abbey Theatre and at the Queen’s. First collection of short stories, The Saucer of Larks, published. Begins writing a weekly column for the Irish Press. |
| 1963 |
Spends several months with Tyrone Guthrie at the Guthrie Theatre, Minneapolis. |
| 1964 |
Philadelphia Here I come! premieres by the Gate Theatre before transferring to Broadway in 1966 for a nine month run. |
| 1966 |
Second collection of short stories, The Gold in the Sea, published. The Loves of Cass McGuire premieres on Broadway. |
| 1967 |
Lovers premieres at the Gate Theatre. |
| 1968 |
The Gate premieres Crystal and Fox and also tours Lovers to the Lincoln Center Festival, New York which runs for more than three months before a nationwide tour of the US. |
| 1969 |
The Gate produces the British premiere of Lovers in London. The Mundy Scheme premieres at the Olympia Theatre, Dublin and the Royal Theater, New York. |
| 1971 |
The Gentle Island premieres at the Olympia. |
| 1973 |
The Freedom of the City premieres at the Abbey and Royal Court, London. |
| 1974 |
The Freedom of the City opens in New York. |
| 1975 |
Volunteers premieres at the Abbey. |
| 1977 |
Living Quarters premieres at the Abbey. |
| 1979 |
Faith Healer premieres in New York. Aristocrats premieres at the Abbey. |
| 1980 |
Irish Premiere of Faith Healer at the Abbey. Translations premieres in Derry before touring Ireland. Founds Field Day Theatre Company with Stephen Rea. |
| 1981 |
British Premiere of Faith Healer at the Royal Court. US and British premiere of Translations. Translation of Chekhov’s Three Sisters premieres in Derry. |
| 1982 |
The Communication Chord premieres in Derry. Elected member of Aosdána. |
| 1983 |
RTÉ produces documentary on Friel and Field Day. |
| 1986 |
Edited The Last of the Name, the recollections of a Donegal weaver, Charles McGinley. |
| 1987 |
Appointed to the Irish Senate by Charles J Haughey. Adaptation of Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons premieres in London. |
| 1988 |
The Gate produces the Irish premiere Fathers and Sons. Making History premieres in Derry. British premiere of Aristocrats, wins Evening Standard Drama Award. |
| 1989 |
BBC Radio 3 devotes a six-play season to Friel, the first living playwright to be so honoured. US premiere of Aristocrats. Wins New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award. |
| 1990 |
The Gate produces Aristocrats. Dancing at Lughnasa premieres at the Abbey before transferring to London, winning an Olivier Award, an Evening Standard Award and a Writers’ Guild Award. |
| 1991 |
US premiere of Dancing at Lughnasa where it runs for a year, winning three Tony Awards and the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award.. The three-volume Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing launched. |
| 1992 |
The Gate premieres The London Vertigo and also produces A Month in the Country. |
| 1993 |
Wonderful Tennessee premieres at the Abbey and in New York. |
| 1994 |
The Gate premieres Molly Sweeney in Dublin before transferring to the West End. 1996 The Gate transfers Molly Sweeney to New York. Wins the Lucille Lortel Award, Outer Critics’ Circle Award and the Drama Critics’ Circle Award. |
| 1997 |
Give Me Your Answer Do! premieres at the Abbey. |
| 1998 |
The Gate premieres Friel’s version of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya. Film version of Dancing at Lughnasa. UK premiere of Give Me Your Answer Do! |
| 1999 |
Dublin celebrates Friel’s seventieth birthday with a Friel Festival. The Gate produces Aristocrats in Dublin before transferring it and Uncle Vanya to the Lincoln Center Festival, New York. US premiere of Give Me Your Answer Do! |
| 2000 |
Hour-long television documentary Brian Friel produced. |
| 2001 |
The Gate premieres The Yalta Game. National Library of Ireland acquires Friel archive. |
| 2002 |
The Gate premieres The Bear and Afterplay, entitled Two Plays After, in Dublin before transferring to the Spoleto Festival, South Carolina. The Gate opens Afterplay in the West End. |
| 2003 |
The Gate premieres Performances. |
| 2005 |
The Gate premieres The Home Place before transferring to the West End. Wins the Evening Standard Award. |
| 2006 |
The Gate produces Faith Healer, featuring Ralph Fiennes, and enjoys a sell-out run in Dublin and on Broadway. Wins Tony Award. Friel elected Saoi (Wise One) of Aosdána, its highest honour. |
| 2008 |
The Gate premieres Friel's version of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler. |
| 2009 |
The Gate presents a Friel festival, entitled Gate | Friel, at the Sydney Festival, the Edinburgh International Festival and in Dublin. The Brian Friel Centre for Theatre Research opens at Queen's University, Belfast. Friel Receives the Ulysses Medal from University College Dublin, its highest honour. |
