Craig, Harry (Henry Armitage Llewellyn, 'H. A. L.') (1921–78), writer and political activist, was born on 20 October 1921 in Dromtariffe, Kanturk, Co. Cork, one of twin sons of James Robert Hanna Craig, a Church of Ireland clergyman, and his wife Margaret Eva Grace (née Llewellyn), a musician. He grew up in Kilkeedy, Co. Limerick, where his father was vicar 'with twelve parishioners'. Harry was educated at Villiers School, Limerick, and Kilkenny College before studying classics for seven years at TCD while supporting himself as a professional writer. He later told the Cork Examiner (22 June 1962) that he published a collection of verse soon after leaving school and had 'always contrived to live by his writing, which has included verse, dramatic and film criticism, and books on subjects ranging from poker to Ben Jonson's “Discoveries”. He has avoided any form of regular employment on the grounds that, since writing is so painful to him, security would too easily persuade him to give it up.' (These books may have appeared pseudonymously.) Disturbed by the level of poverty in Ireland, he was active in left-wing politics and trade-union affairs, travelling the country by bicycle to recruit agricultural labourers and turf workers into the Workers' Union of Ireland, often going hungry himself. He worked closely with Seán Dunne (qv) and James Larkin (qv), regarding the latter as 'one of the greatest men who ever lived' (Ir. Press, 10 December 1963).
After the dissolution of the Communist Party of Ireland in 1941, Craig was one of the group of communist activists who infiltrated the Labour Party (he joined the Pearse Street branch). At one point he was secretary of the Dublin Labour Party and during the 1943–4 controversies leading to the formation of the National Labour Party was cited by Alfred O'Rahilly (qv) as an example of Labour's alleged communist tendencies. He was also a member of the Fabian Society, which had a branch in TCD.
Craig was assistant editor of The Bell under Sean O'Faolain (qv), and under the lackadaisical editorship of Peadar O'Donnell (qv) performed most editorial functions until his departure to London in 1948. His own contributions to The Bell included a December 1944 article which espoused the view that anti-catholic discrimination by Ulster unionists was primarily economic rather than religious in motivation (but, as a southern protestant, declared outrage that such things should be done in the name of 'our religion'), a 1950 analysis of the poetry of W. R. Rodgers (qv), and 'Blame not the bard', a radio script about Thomas Moore (qv).
A well-known womaniser, Craig claimed to have fathered six children in extra-marital relations before leaving Ireland. Nuala O'Faolain (qv), with whom Craig had a casual liaison in the 1970s, recalled that while his attraction lay in emotional and financial generosity based on all-encompassing, unconditional empathy, the downside of this non-judgementalism was 'complete moral empiricism' and oblivousness to the effect of his behaviour on others. She thought Craig seemed incapable of non-sexual friendship with a woman, and that many women (herself included) were persuaded by his charm to accept him on his own terms.
In 1948 Craig moved to Britain where he worked as a journalist on the Manchester Guardian, and subsequently for the BBC. (While living with a woman in Hampstead, Craig allowed his flat to be used by Irish friends, including Sean O'Faolain who was engaged in an affair with Honor Tracy (qv). Patrick Kavanagh (qv) published a fictitious account of the affair as a story in The Bell, further embellishing it by presenting Tracy as bored by a pretentious O'Faolain and consoling herself with Craig.) At first Craig worked on the Overseas Service, then on the Third Programme, working with Louis MacNeice (qv) and W. R. Rodgers on feature documentaries on such subjects as Thomas Moore, the Renaissance artist Benvenuto Cellini (1955), and the last voyage of the Jacobean polar explorer Henry Hudson (1956). His 1955 ballad opera for radio on Robert Emmet (qv), Farewell companions, with music by William Alwyn, was adapted for the stage and performed in Green Street courthouse as part of the 1956 Dublin Theatre Festival. Craig collaborated with Dominic Behan (qv) on several ballad operas for radio, including A grand year for mushrooms (1961), based on the great famine, and The flight of the earls (1962). Behan and Craig also collaborated on a 1962 documentary for the American TV channel ABC, The Irish and the arts, and a proposed adaptation of The ragged-trousered philanthropists by Robert Tressell (qv). Many of Craig's friends saw his work for the BBC as his most creative period; he was also drama critic for the New Statesman at this time. (Dublin rumour also credited him with scripting the queen's Christmas message and 'cutting a swathe' through female BBC employees.) On 14 October 1955 he married Peggy Anthony, with whom he had two sons and a daughter.
Late in 1956 Craig's appearance on a BBC television discussion programme where he expressed anti-partitionist views in relation to the outbreak of the IRA 'border campaign' led to protests from Ulster unionists and a successful demand by Lord Brookeborough (qv) to present the unionist case on BBC television. From the early 1960s Craig moved into scriptwriting. In 1962 he was associated with the set designer Sean Kenny (qv) and the director Michael Powell in an abortive project to develop a film company, Lambay Productions, to make films at Ardmore. For some years from 1963 Craig worked with the American producer Milo Frank on an unsuccessful project for an expressionist film about the Irish struggle against England based on the novel O'Houlihan's jest by the Irish-Canadian author 'Rohan O'Grady' (June O'Grady-Skinner (1922–2014)); at one point, John Huston (qv) was attached to the project as director. According to Shana Alexander, Marlon Brando claimed that O'Houlihan was the finest script he had ever read. Brando was a close friend of Craig, seeing him as a loving, forgiving father figure (this emotional dynamic underlay many of Craig's close male friendships). Craig was also associated with a projected film of 'The scarperer' by Brendan Behan (qv) to feature Peter O'Toole, another close friend for whom Craig scripted the 1976 film Foxtrot (dir. Arturo Ripstein).
In 1968 Craig moved to Rome, where he worked for the film producer Dino De Laurentiis as a screenwriter and general assistant. He associated with other Irish expatriates, including the poet Desmond O'Grady (1935–2014) and the painter Eddie Plunkett (1939–2011), later 20th Baron Dunsany. During this time he worked as scriptwriter for the films Anzio (1968) (dir. Edward Dmytryk and Duilio Coletti) and Fraulein Doktor (1969; dir. Alberto Lattuada). Craig's Times obituary states that he also worked on the films Barry Lyndon (1975; dir. Stanley Kubrick) and The charge of the light brigade (1968; dir. Tony Richardson). Although he is not formally credited on either film, it is possible that he acted as a 'script doctor' (uncredited screenwriter employed for revision). Craig's best-known work from this period was as story and screenplay writer for the film Waterloo (1970; dir. Sergei Bondarchuk), starring Christopher Plummer and Rod Steiger.
In later years Craig worked with the Syrian-American producer and director Moustapha Akkad (1930–2005), for whom he scripted The message (1976), depicting the life of the Islamic prophet Mohammed, and Lion of the desert (1981), an account of the struggle of the Libyan guerrilla leader Omar Mukhtar (1862–1931) against the colonial forces of fascist Italy (both films starring Anthony Quinn). The message is renowned for the dramatic issues caused by its observance of rigorist Sunni Islamic prohibitions on the portrayal of the person or voice of Mohammed and many of his close associates and family members. An offshoot of this project was Craig's 1977 novel Bilal, a reverent retelling of the story of Mohammed in the persona of one of the earliest Islamic converts, a liberated black slave. This retelling emphasises the element of social justice in Mohammed's early preaching and struggle against the pagan rulers of Mecca, and is shaped by Sunni apologetics. (According to friends, Craig, who described himself as a spiritual seeker, developed an increasing interest in Islam though it is not clear whether he formally converted; Nuala O'Faolain thought this incongruous with his fondness for alcohol.) At the time of his death Craig was working on a script about Saladin, the Islamic ruler who reconquered Jerusalem from the Crusaders. Craig also received credit for the original story idea for the disaster film Airport '77. In general, however, his film work does not seem to have lived up to its potential, with some of his most accomplished scripts never achieving production.
Harry Craig died in Rome on 23 October 1978 of metastatic lung cancer which had only been diagnosed six weeks previously (he was a heavy smoker and avoided doctors). He was buried in Mount Jerome cemetery, Dublin; a memorial medallion commissioned by his twin brother Richard summed up his life by combining images of TCD, the Campidoglio in Rome and a muslim minaret.