John MacDonagh (1880–1961) was an Irish film director, playwright, republican, and a participant in the 1916 Easter Rising. MacDonagh was born in Cloughjordan, County Tipperary, where he grew up in a household filled with music, poetry and learning. Both his parents were teachers who strongly emphasized the value of education. He toured with the Moody Manners Opera Company in England and the United States before writing the script for D.W. Griffith's The Fugitive (1910). He subsequently returned to Ireland and joined RTÉ as productions director, a position he held until 1947.