Jo Slade studied Art and Design at the Limerick and National Colleges of Art and Design and exhibits her paintings widely. Her collections are In Fields I Hear Them Sing (Galway, Salmon Poetry, 1989); The Vigilant One (Salmon Poetry, 1994), which was nominated for The Irish Times/Aer Lingus Literature Prize; Certain Octobers (Quimpeir, France, Editions […]
Michael Smith was born in Dublin in 1942. He founded New Writers’ Press in 1967, which published Thomas McGreevey, Denis Devlin, Brian Coffey, and other neglected modernist poets, as well as numerous younger poets. He was also a founder and editor of the literary magazine The Lace Curtain. His own collections are With the Woodnymphs […]
Sydney Bernard Smith was born in Glasgow in 1936 and raised in Portstewart, Co Derry. His work has been broadcast on RTÉ, BBC and Channel 4 (UK), and staged in Ireland, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and in the US. His poetry collections include Girl With Violin (The Dolmen Press [Poetry Ireland Editions 3], Dublin […]
Cherry Smyth was born in Ballymoney, County Antrim and grew up in Portstewart, Co Derry. Her poetry collections are When the Lights Go (Belfast, Lagan Press, 2001); and One Wanted Thing (Lagan Press, 2006). Her anthology of women prisoners’ writing, A Strong Voice in a Small Space, (Cherry Picking Press, 2002), won the Raymond Williams […]
Gerard Smyth was born in Dublin in 1951. He published a chapbook, The Flags are Quiet (Dublin, New Writers’ Press, 1969), in an edition of 90 copies. His full collections are World Without End (Dublin, New Writers Press, 1977); Loss and Gain (Raven Arts Press, 1981); Painting the Pink Roses Black (Dublin, Dedalus, 1986); Daytime […]
Damian Smyth was born in Downpatrick, Co Down, in 1962. His poetry collections are Downpatrick Races (Belfast, Lagan Press, 2000); The Down Recorder (Belfast, Lagan Press, 2004); Lamentations (Belfast, Lagan Press, 2010); Market Street (Belfast, Lagan Press, 2010); Apparitions: A Hurricane (Derby, Templar Poetry, booklet, 2012); and Mesopotamia (Derby, Templar Poetry, 2014). Recent anthologies in […]
Jane Francesca Wilde, also known as Speranza, was born Jane Frances Agnes Elgee, in Dublin, probably in 1821. She witnessed the funeral of Thomas Davis in 1845 and subsequently read his poetry, which awakened her to Irish nationalism. Her grandfather, Archdeacon Elgee, rector of Wexford, was so popular that he was left in peace by […]
James Stephens was born in Dublin in 1882. In his early years he was a solicitor’s clerk, and later Registrar of the National Gallery of Ireland. Amongst his many literary friends was James Joyce, who, partly because they shared a birth year, suggested that Stephens finish Finnegans Wake should Joyce himself fail. His poetry collections […]
Lisa Steppe was born in Germany and moved to Ireland in 1984. Her publications in German are, as Elisabeth Steppe, die kasematte (Schwabenverlag, Ruit bein Stuttgart, 1971); and as Lisa Steppe, Island (Berlin, edition weltkultur, 1980). Her stories and poems have been published widely in English. Her poetry collection in English is When the Wheat […]
Eithne Strong was born in Limerick in 1925. Her poetry includes Cirt Oibre (Coiscéim, 1980); Fuill agus Fallaí (Coiscéim, 1983); Aoife fe Ghlas (Coiscéim, 1990); An Sagart Pinc (Coiscéim, 1990); Poetry Quartos (Dublin, Runa Press, 1943-45); Songs of Living (Runa Press, 1961); Sarah in Passing (Dublin, The Dolmen Press, 1974); Flesh – The Greatest Sin […]
Francis Stuart was born in Australia in 1902. His plays include Men Crowd me Round (1933); and Strange Guest (1940). His short prose was collected in States of Mind (Dublin,Raven Arts Press, 1983). His poetry includes We Have Kept the Faith (Dublin, Oak,1933), reprinted by The Raven Arts Press; Night Pilot (Raven Arts Press, 1988); […]
Breda Sullivan was born in Athlone in 1945. Her collections are A Smell of Camphor (Galway, Salmon Poetry, 1992); After the Ball (The Cliffs of Moher, Salmon Poetry, 1998); and Sculpture in Black Ice (Salmon Poetry, 2004). She has won numerous awards for her poety, including that of the Kerry International Summer School (1995); Boyle […]
Matthew Sweeney was born in Co Donegal in 1952. His poetry collections include A Dream of Maps (Dublin, Raven Arts Press, 1981); A Round House (London, Alison & Busby/ Raven, 1983); The Lame Waltzer (Allison & Busby,1985); Blue Shoes (Secker & Warburg,1989); Cacti (Secker & Warburg 1989); The Bridal Suite (London, Jonathan Cape, 1997); A […]
Jonathan Swift was born on the 30 November 1667, at 7 Hoey’s Court, Dublin. His father, according to the Cabinet of Irish Literature, was a full cousin of the poet Dryden. His mother moved back to her home in England after her husband’s death, but Swift stayed in Dublin with an uncle, entering Kilkenny Grammar […]
John Millington Synge was born in 1871 in Rathfarnham, Dublin. He studied music in Germany and lived in Paris, where he wrote literary criticism, and where he met WB Yeats, who famously persuaded him to live in the Aran Islands before returning to Dublin. He spent five summers there, and perfected his Irish. He also […]
Kate Thompson was born in Halifax, Yorkshire, in 1956. She has published one collection of poetry, There is Something (USA, The Signpost Press/Galway, Salmon Poetry, 1992); and three adult novels, Down Among the Gods (London, Virago Press, 1997); Thin Air (London, Sceptre, 1999); and An Act of Worship (Sceptre, 2000). She has published a number […]
Bill Tinley was born in Chicago in 1965, and moved with his family to Wicklow in 1970. He received the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award in 1996. His poems are collected as Grace (New Island Books, 2001). His doctoral thesis is on Derek Mahon. He lives in Maynooth, Co. Kildare. Bill Tinley on Facebook “Harmonies and […]
Nesta Tuomey was born in Dublin. Her novels are Up Up and Away (Cork, Emperor Publishing, 1995); and Like One Of The Family (Dingle, Mount Eagle, 1999). Her plays, documentaries and short stories have been broadcast by BBC and RTÉ and her one-act play Whose Baby won the O.Z. Whitehead Play Competition in 1996. She […]
Katharine Tynan was born at Whitehall, Clondalkin, Co. Dublin in 1861. She published many poetry collections include Louise de la Valliere and Other Poems (London, Kegan, Paul Trench, & Co., 1885); Shamrocks (Kegan, Paul Trench, & Co., 1887); Ballads & Lyrics (Keegan, Paul, 1891); New Poems (London, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1911); The Flower of Peace: […]
Drucilla Wall was born in Chicago and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her first collection is The Geese at the Gates (Cliffs of Moher, Salmon Poetry, 2011). She teaches poetry and essay writing, and Native American literature, at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Her awards include the Mari Sandoz Prairie Schooner Short Story Award; the Western […]
Eamonn Wall was born in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford in 1955. He has published two chapbooks, The Tame Goose (New York, The Hale Press, 1990); and Fire Escape (New York, Sunken-Isle Press, 1988). His poetry is collected as Dyckman – 200th Street (Cliffs of Moher, Co Clare, Salmon Publishing, 1994); Iron Mountain Road (Salmon Publishing 1997); […]
William Wall was born in Cork in 1955. His poetry collections are Mathematics & Other Poems* (Collins Press 1997), which won The Patrick Kavanagh Award and the Listowel Writers’ Week Collection Prize; Fahrenheit Says Nothing To Me (Dublin, Dedalus Press, 2004); and Ghost Estate (Cliffs of Moher, Salmon Poetry, 2011). As Bill Wall, he has […]
Catherine Walsh was born in Dublin in 1964. Her poetry includes Macula (Dublin, Red Wheelbarrow Press, 1986); The Ca Pater Pillar Thing and More Besides (Dublin, hardPressed Poetry, 1986); Making Tents (hardPressed Poetry, 1987); Short Stories (UK, Twickenham and Wakefield, North & South, 1989); from Pitch (London, Form Books, 1993); Pitch (Durham, UK, Pig press, […]
Michael Walsh was born at Ben of Fore, Castlepollard, Co. Westmeath. His poetry collections are Brown Earth and Green ([with a foreword by Katherine Tynan] Dublin, The Talbot Press, 1929); The Heart Remembers Morning (The Talbot Press, 1931); Red on the Holly (Dublin, Colm O’Lochlainn at the Sign of the Three Candles, 1934); Walls in […]
Eugene Watters/Eoghan Ó Tuairisc was born in Ballinasloe, Co Galway in 1919. He received a Masters Degree in English Literature and Language from UCD. He served as an Officer in the Irish Army and worked as a primary teacher in Dublin until 1961, when he became a full time writer. After the death of his […]
Anthony Weir was born in 1941. His publications include Tide and Undertow (translations of poetry) (Belfast, Blackstaff Press, 1975); Early Ireland: A Field Guide (Blackstaff Press, 1980); Cinema of the Blind (poems) (Blackstaff Press,1981). He founded non-profit Dissident Editions in 1994 and self-published Dispatches from the War Against the World (1994); The Transcendental Hotel (1997), […]
Grace Wells was born in London in 1968. Her books for children include Gyrfalcon (Dublin, O’Brien Press, 2002), which won won the Eilis Dillon Best Newcomer Bisto Award and was also an International White Ravens’ Choice; and Ice Dreams (O’Brien Press, 2008). Her book One World Our World is a storybook for children in Ireland […]
David Wheatley was born in Dublin in 1970. His collections are Thirst (Loughcrew, The Gallery Press, 1997), which won The Rooney Prize in 1998; Misery Hill (The Gallery Press, 2000); Mocker (The Gallery Press, 2006); and A Nest on the Waves (The Gallery Press, 2010). Stream and Gliding Sun: A Wicklow Anthology, and I Am […]
Oscar Wilde was born in Westland Row, Dublin on October 16th, 1854 to an eminent surgeon, William Wilde and the famous nationalist poet, Lady Jane Wilde, known as Speranza (her Selected Poems were published in Dublin in 1900). He settled in London in 1879. In 1882 he embarked on a lecture tour of the United […]
Joseph Woods was born in Co Louth in 1966. First published in Japan, his collections are Sailing to Hokkaido (Kent, UK, Worple Press, 2001); Bearings (Worple Press, 2005); Cargo (Dublin, Dedalus Press, 2010); and Ocean Letters (Dedalus Press, 2011). He was been awarded the Patrick Kavanagh Award in 2000. With Irene De Angelis he has […]
MacDara Woods was born in Dublin in 1942. His collections of poetry include Decimal D. Sec Drinks in a Bar in Marrakesh (Dublin, New Writers Press, 1970); Early Morning Matins (Dublin, The Gallery Press, 1973); Stopping the Lights in Ranelagh (Dublin, The Dedalus Press, 1987); Miz Moon (The Dedalus Press, 1988); The Hanged Man Was […]
Vincent Woods was born in Co. Leitrim in 1960. His plays include John Hughdy/Tom John (Galway, Druid Theatre Company, 1991); At the Black Pig’s Dyke (Druid Theatre Company, 1992); Song of the Yellow Bittern (Druid Theatre Company, 1994); Fontamara (adaptation from the novel by Ignazio Silone, Collins Barracks, Dublin, Vesuvius Theatre Company, 1998); and A […]
Enda Wyley was born in Dublin in 1966. Her collections are Eating Baby Jesus (Dublin, The Dedalus Press, 1993); Socrates In the Garden (The Dedalus Press, 1998); Poems for Breakfast (Dedalus, 2004); and To Wake to This (The Dedalus Press, 2009). She was poet in Residence in Melbourne University in 1996, having received The Vincent […]
William Butler Yeats was born in Dublin on June 13, 1865. With Lady Gregory and others, he founded the Irish Literary Theatre, from which developed the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in 1896. His poetry includes Mosada (Dublin, Sealy, Bryers & Walker, 1886); The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems (London, Kegan Paul, 1889) Crossways, 1889; The […]
Augustus Young is the pen name of James Hogan, who was born in Cork, in 1943. As Augustus Young, his poetry collections include Survival (Dublin, New Writers’ Press, 1969); On Loaning Hill (New Writers’ Press, 1972); The Credit: A Comedy Of Empeiria (London, Menard Press, 1980); The Credit: Book Two, Book Three (Advent/Menard 1986); Days […]
