Paul Durcan facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Paul Durcan
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|---|---|
| Pól Mac Duarcáin | |
Durcan in 2008
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| Born | 16 October 1944 Dublin, Ireland
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| Died | 17 May 2025 (aged 80) |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Years active | 1967–2016 |
| Spouse(s) |
Nessa O'Neill
(m. 1968; div. 1984) |
| Children | 2 |
| Relatives | Maud Gonne (great-aunt) John MacBride (great-uncle) |
Paul Durcan (16 October 1944 – 17 May 2025) was an Irish poet.
Early life and education
Durcan was born in Dublin on 16 October 1944. He grew up in Dublin and Turlough, County Mayo. His father, John, was a barrister and circuit court judge; Durcan had a bad relationship with him. Durcan had a better relationship with his mother, Sheila MacBride Durcan, through whom he was a great-nephew of Maud Gonne, the Irish social and political activist, and the Irish republican militant John MacBride, one of the leaders of the Easter Rising.
In the 1970s, he studied archaeology and medieval history at University College Cork. Earlier, in the 1960s, he studied at University College Dublin. While at college there, Durcan was kidnapped by his family and committed against his will to St. John of God Psychiatric Hospital in Dublin, and later to a Harley Street clinic where he was subjected to electric shock treatment and heavy dosages of barbiturates and Mandrax.
Career
In 1966, Durcan moved to London, where he worked at the North Thames Gas Board.
Durcan's main published collections include: A Snail in my Prime, Crazy About Women, Greetings to Our Friends in Brazil and Cries of an Irish Caveman. He appeared on the 1990 Van Morrison album Enlightenment, giving an idiosyncratic vocal performance on the song, "In the Days Before Rock 'N' Roll", which he also co-wrote.
In 2003, he published a collection of his weekly addresses to the nation, Paul Durcan's Diary, on RTÉ Radio 1 programme Today with.... He got his inspiration from Paidraig Whitty, the local Wexford poet. He was shortlisted in 2005 for the Poetry Now Award for his collection, The Art of Life. In 2009, he was conferred with an honorary degree by Trinity College Dublin. Durcan was the Ireland Fund Artist-in-Residence in the Celtic Studies Department of St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto in October 2009. In 2011, Durcan was conferred with an honorary doctorate from University College Dublin.
Between 2004–2007 Durcan was the third Ireland Professor of Poetry. He was a member of Aosdána. A number of his poems are studied by Irish students for the Leaving Certificate.
Personal life and death
Durcan met Nessa O'Neill in 1967; they married the next year and had two children. They lived in South Kensington, then moved to Cork where his wife taught in a prison. The marriage ended in early 1984.
In the last years of his life, Durcan was in poor health and lived in a Dublin nursing home. He died on 17 May 2025, at the age of 80.
Awards
- 1974 – Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award
- 1989 – Irish American Cultural Institute Poetry Award
- 1990 – The Whitbread Award (for Daddy, Daddy)
- Poetry Book Society choice for The Berlin Wall Café
- 2001 – Cholmondeley Award
Works
- Endsville, with Brian Lynch (New Writers Press, 1967)
- O Westport in the Light of Asia Minor (Anna Livia Press, 1975)
- Sam's Cross (Profile Press, 1978)
- Teresa's Bar (Gallery Press, 1976; revised edition, Gallery Press, 1986)
- Jesus, Break his Fall (Raven Arts Press, 1980)
- Ark of the North (Raven Arts Press, 1982)
- The Selected Paul Durcan (edited by Edna Longley, Blackstaff Press, 1982)
- Jumping the Train Tracks with Angela (Raven Arts Press/Carcanet New Press, 1983)
- The Berlin Wall Café (Blackstaff Press, 1985)
- Going Home to Russia (Blackstaff Press, 1987)
- Daddy, Daddy (Blackstaff Press, 1990)
- Crazy About Women (National Gallery of Ireland, 1991)
- A Snail in My Prime: New and Selected Poems, (Harvill Secker / Blackstaff Press, 1993)
- Give Me Your Hand (MacMillan, 1994)
- Christmas Day (Harvill Press, 1997)
- Greetings to Our Friends in Brazil (Harvill Press, 1999)
- Cries of an Irish Caveman (Harvill Press, 2001)
- The Art of Life (Harvill Press, 2004)
- The Laughter of Mothers (Harvill Press, 2007)
- Life Is a Dream: 40 Years Reading Poems 1967-2007 (Random House UK, 2009)
- Praise In Which I Live And Move And Have My Being (Harvill Secker, 2012)
- The Days of Surprise (Harvill Secker, 2015)
- Wild, Wild Erie: Poems Inspired by Paintings and Sculpture in the Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio (Toledo Museum of Art, 2016)
Paul Durcan's Diary
This collection gives a previously unseen view of Durcan's work and a more personal view of him and his poetry. It gives an insight into his childhood.
