Liam Ó Muirthile facts for kids
Liam Ó Muirthile (born 1950, died 2018) was an important Irish-language poet. He also wrote plays and novels. He worked as a journalist too. Ó Muirthile became well-known as part of a group of poets from University College Cork. They worked together on a magazine called Innti in the late 1960s.
About Liam Ó Muirthile
Liam Ó Muirthile was born in Cork in 1950. He went to school there. He studied Irish and French at University College Cork (UCC). He learned Irish at school and by spending time in the Gaeltacht of West Kerry. A Gaeltacht is an area in Ireland where Irish is the main language spoken every day.
He was part of a group of poets at University College Cork in the late 1960s. They chose Irish as their language for writing poems. This group was closely linked to a modern poetry magazine called Innti. It was started by another poet, Michael Davitt (1950-2005). These poets were inspired by the work of Cork poet Seán Ó Ríordáin. They were also influenced by the musician Seán Ó Riada and by popular American culture.
Greg Delanty, a writer for Poetry International, said that Ó Muirthile and the Innti group did something very important. They helped the Irish language fit into modern city life. They showed how the language could be used to talk about the new ideas and changes of the 1960s.
His Writings
Liam Ó Muirthile was known as a poet who was very skilled with words and rhythm. He had studied old and new Irish poetry very deeply. He also studied French literature when he was a student. This influenced his own writing. He translated poems by famous French writers like Guillaume Apollinaire, François Villon, Jacques Prévert, and Anne Hébert.
His first collection of poems was called Tine Chnámh (1984). This book won an award from the Irish American Cultural Institute. It also received a poetry prize from Oireachtas, which is a big Irish arts festival. After that, he published several other collections of poems. In 1996, he won the Butler Award for his novel Ar Bhruach na Laoi. He also had several plays performed on stage.
From 1989 to 2003, Liam Ó Muirthile wrote a weekly newspaper column. It was called “An Peann Coitianta” and appeared in Irish Times. His poems have been translated into many languages. These include English, German, French, Italian, Hungarian, and Romanian.
