Æ (George William Russell)

Æ (George William Russell) was born in Lurgan, County Armagh, in 1867, and moved to Dublin when he was eleven. An active Irish nationalist, he edited the Irish Homestead (1904–23), where he published James Joyce’s The Sisters, and the Irish Statesman (1923–30), where he published Patrick Kavanagh’s early poems. He worked with Sir Horace Plunkett […]

Brown, Christy

Christy Brown was born in Crumlin, Dublin, in 1932. One of thirteen surviving children, he suffered from cerebral palsy and was considered mentally disabled until he famously snatched a piece of chalk from his sister with his left foot. His autobiography, My Left Foot (London, Secker & Warburg, 1954/New York, Simon & Schuster, 1955), was […]