 |
Gerry Murphy | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1952 Cork City, Ireland |
| Occupation | Poet, swimming instructor |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Notable works | Extracts From The Lost Log Book of Christopher Columbus (1999), End of Part One, New and Selected Poems (2006) |
|
Gerry Murphy | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1952 Cork City, Ireland |
| Occupation | Poet, swimming instructor |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Notable works | Extracts From The Lost Log Book of Christopher Columbus (1999), End of Part One, New and Selected Poems (2006) |
Gerry Murphy was born in Cork City in 1952. [1] His work is witty, openly intellectual and often satirical and is "highly, self-consciously literary". [2] "Much of the most recent work displays intense absorption of the Roman classics either through direct reference or employment of the pithy epigram." [2]
He attended University College Cork where he was part of a resurgence of literary activity under the inspiration of John Montague. Among his contemporaries, described by Thomas Dillon Redshaw as "that remarkable generation," there were Thomas McCarthy, William Wall, Theo Dorgan, Maurice Riordan, Greg Delanty and Sean Dunne. He is a hugely popular reader of his own work. But “...what makes Murphy unique among his contemporaries,” according to Montague in a brief foreword to the Selected volume (2006), “is his curious integrity, the way he has created an aesthetic out of nearly nothing, ex nihilo.”
After dropping out of university in the early 1970s Murphy spent some years working in London and a year living in an Israeli Kibbutz before returning to Cork in 1980 where he has remained ever since. [2] A champion swimmer, he has made his living primarily as a life guard and swimming pool manager.
Pocket Apocalypse, his translations of the Polish poet Katarzyna Borun-Jagodzinska, appeared in 2005 from Southword Editions. End of Part One: New & Selected Poems features generous selections from all of those books together with some 30 new poems in a section entitled ‘The Psychopathology of Everyday Life’. Gerry's poetry has also come to life on the stage, with a stage adaptation by American playwright Roger Gregg [3] at the Triskel Arts Centre, Cork.
Writing in The Irish Examiner about his 2010 book My Flirtation With International Socialism, poet Thomas McCarthy described him as "indisputably the doyen of the post-Galvin Cork generations, Murphy is a thrilling and provocative master of poetic monologue and social commentary. His habit is to be elliptical in politics, to insert a political jibe or universal truth as adroitly as an assassin’s knife". [4] Fred Johnston, writing in Poetry Ireland Review , described Murphy's work as "catching the chink of light between the savagely political and the everyday". [5]
Other poets cited as possible influences on Murphy's work include the American Charles Simic and the Romanian Marin Sorescu.
Pat Boran is an Irish poet.
William "Bill" Wall is an Irish novelist, poet and short story writer.
Thomas McCarthy is an Irish poet, novelist, and critic, born in Cappoquin, County Waterford, Ireland. He attended University College Cork where he was part of a resurgence of literary activity under the inspiration of John Montague. Among McCarthy's contemporaries, described by Thomas Dillon Redshaw as "that remarkable generation", were the writers and poets Theo Dorgan, Sean Dunne, Greg Delanty, Maurice Riordan and William Wall. McCarthy edited, at various times, The Cork Review and Poetry Ireland Review. He has published seven collections of poetry with Anvil Press Poetry, London, including The Sorrow Garden, The Lost Province, Mr Dineen's Careful Parade, The Last Geraldine Officer, and Merchant Prince. The main themes of his poetry are Southern Irish politics, love and memory. He is also the author of two novels; Without Power and Asya and Christine. He is married with two children and lives in Cork City where he worked in the City Libraries until his retirement. He won the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award in 1977. His monograph "Rising from the Ashes" tells the story of the burning of the Carnegie Free Library in Cork City by the Black and Tans in 1920 and the subsequent efforts to rebuild the collection with the help of donors from all over the world.
John Montague was an Irish poet. Born in America, he was raised in Ireland. He published a number of volumes of poetry, two collections of short stories and two volumes of memoir. He was one of the best known Irish contemporary poets. In 1998 he became the first occupant of the Ireland Chair of Poetry. In 2010, he was made a Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur, France's highest civil award.
Robert Greacen (1920–2008) was an Irish poet and member of Aosdána. Born in Derry, Ireland, on 24 October 1920, he was educated at Methodist College Belfast and Trinity College Dublin. He died on 13 April 2008 in Dublin, Ireland.
Seán Dunne (1956–1995) was a poet born in Waterford, Ireland.
Greg Delanty is an Irish poet. An issue of the British magazine, Agenda, was dedicated to him.
Maurice Riordan is an Irish poet, translator, and editor.
The Great Book of Ireland, a gallery and anthology of modern Irish art and poetry, was a project which began in 1989. The book was published in 1991 and in January 2013 it was acquired by University College Cork for $1 million.
Theo Dorgan is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer, translator, librettist and documentary screenwriter. He lives in Dublin.
Gregory O'Donoghue (1951–2005) was an Irish poet.
Dennis O'Driscoll was an Irish poet, essayist, critic and editor. Regarded as one of the best European poets of his time, Eileen Battersby considered him "the lyric equivalent of William Trevor" and a better poet "by far" than Raymond Carver. Gerard Smyth regarded him as "one of poetry's true champions and certainly its most prodigious archivist". His book on Seamus Heaney is regarded as the definitive biography of the Nobel laureate.
The Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award is an Irish poetry award for a collection of poems by an author who has not previously been published in collected form. It is confined to poets born on the island of Ireland, or who have Irish nationality, or are long-term residents of Ireland. It is based on an open competition whose closing date is in July each year. The award was founded by the Patrick Kavanagh Society in 1971 to commemorate the poet.
John Ennis is an Irish poet born in Westmeath in 1944.
Gerard Smyth is an Irish poet, born in Dublin in 1951 and began publishing poetry in the late 1960s when his first poems were published by David Marcus in the New Irish Writing Page of The Irish Press and by James Simmons in The Honest Ulsterman.
John William Sexton is an Irish poet, short-story writer, radio script-writer and children's novelist. He also writes under the pseudonyms of Sex W. Johnston and Jack Brae Curtingstall.
Doireann Ní Ghríofa is an Irish poet and essayist who writes in both Irish and English.
Patrick Cotter is an Irish poet based in Cork city. Born in 1963, he has published several collections of poetry. He is currently the Artistic Director of the Munster Literature Centre.
Sean Lucy was an Irish poet and educator.
Ciaran O'Driscoll is an Irish poet and novelist born in Callan, County Kilkenny and living in Limerick.
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