Dennis O'Driscoll

Dennis O'Driscoll. Courtesy Poems Out Loud.

Dennis O’Driscoll (January 1, 1954 - 24 December 2012) was an Irish poet, essayist, critic, and editor.

Life

O'Driscoll was born in Thurles, County Tipperary, Ireland, the child of James and Catherine F., a salesman/horticulturist and a homemaker. He was educated by The Congregation of Christian Brothers and then studied Law at University College, Dublin 1972-75.

After completing his secondary education, at age 16 in 1970, O'Driscoll was offered a job at Ireland's Office of the Revenue Commissioners, the internal revenue and customs service. Specializing in "death duties, stamp duties, and customs,"he was employed for over 30 years full-time.

Later, in the 1970s and 80's, O'Driscoll held many part-time jobs and positions in association with his writing. He took, for instance, a position as part-time editor of Tax Briefing, a technical journal produced in Ireland, as well as reviewing poetry for Hibernia, and The Crane Bag. He also served on the council of the Irish United Nations Association from 1975-80. After this, he married Julie O'Callaghan, a writer, in September 1985. In 1987, he temporarily became a writer-in-residence at the National University of Ireland. He has also served as editor of Poetry Ireland Review as well as two textbook anthologies entitled The Bloodaxe Book of Poetry, and Quote Poet Unquote.

He has published a collection of literary criticism entitled Troubled Thoughts, Majestic Dreams, which contains a selection of his essays and reviews. A new collection of his essays, The Outnumbered Poet,is forthcoming from Gallery Press. Stepping Stones, an acclaimed 500-page volume of his interviews with Nobel Prize winner, Seamus Heaney, was published in 2008. He is editor of A Michael Hamburger Reader, scheduled for publication by Anvil Press in 2013.

After 38 years in Revenue, in early 2008, O'Driscoll was asked to write a poem marking the opening of the Revenue Museum in Dublin Castle, marking the first time his job and his art would intermingle. This poem, At The Revenue Museum,which was originally brought to life to be printed in a program for the opening ceremony, now hangs as an exhibit in the museum itself. O'Driscoll stayed in the revenue business for as long as he did due to the advice of a colleague, who told him, "If you ever leave your job, you will stop writing." Thus, revenue became a sort of fall back option for him; a career that paid regularly and provided a pension. Whereas poetry was his art. Even so, in his memoir entitled, Sing for the Taxman, O'Driscoll states, "I have always regarded myself as a civil servant rather than a 'poet' or 'artist' - words I would find embarrassing and presumptuous to ascribe to myself."

Death

O'Driscoll died suddenly at the age of 58 over the 2012 Christmas period. He was rushed to hospital after becoming ill but quickly succumbed to his fate. The arts world was shocked by his sudden demise. His wife, the poet Julie O'Callaghan, and siblings – brothers Proinsias, Seamus, Declan, and sisters, Marie and Eithne – survived him.

President Michael D. Higgins noted that O'Driscoll was "held in the highest regard not only by all those associated with Irish and European poetry". Joe Duffy, with whom O'Driscoll had appeared on air on the very week of his death, called O'Driscoll a "generous, caring and witty man". Fellow writer Belinda McKeon said he was "a scholar, a gentleman, a character, a friend". British critic David Morley described him as "fine poet and great critic". Irish PEN mourned his death.

Writing

Prior to the publication of his own poems, O'Driscoll published widely in journals and other print publications as both an essayist and poetry reviewer, for which he was very widely known. In fact, The Times Literary Supplement has called him "one of Ireland's most respected critics of poetry." During this time he contributed upwards of 200 essays and reviews to various publications. Some of the better known periodicals he has been published in are Poetry, The London Magazine, Harvard Review, The Southern Review, and Poetry Review.

O'Driscoll's poems were often written to contain the major motifs of death and the banality of everyday life in a fluid and discursive style and an economic language base. In an interview, O'Driscoll claimed his sympathy towards writing in the language that is standard to the time period in which one lives. More often than not, O'Driscoll's poems are shrouded by darker thematic content, but every so often his poems can be satiric and even clownish. Despite this, O'Driscoll is know widely for his fundamental compassion for the human condition. The purpose of his poems in often not to stand by and be passively entertaining, but, rather, to challenge the emotional content of the reader's life.

He wrote nine books of poetry, three chapbooks, and two collections of essays and reviews. The majority of his works can be characterized by the use of economic language and the recurring motifs of mortality and the fragility of everyday life. As he ages, O'Driscoll's works become more fluid and thoughtful as well as more frequent, and, according to some sources, like Alan Brownjohn of The Sunday Times for instance, even though he is younger than some of the poetic greats, "at best he is already their equal."

Recognition

Due to the notability of his works, O'Driscoll received numerous awards and recognition from countries around the world. These include:

• Lannan Literary Award
• E.M. Forster Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
• O'Shaughnessy Award for Poetry from the Center of Irish Studies in Minnesota
• Poetry Book Society Special Commendation for New and Selected Poems
• Shortlisted for The Irish Times Poetry Now Award for Reality Check
• Argosy Irish Non-Fiction Book of the Year Award
• Honorary doctorate in literature by University College, Dublin

He has also been asked to give readings of his work in such places as the Poetry Room in Harvard University, the Poetry International in London as well as the Hay-on-Wye and Cheltenham festivals of literature.

Publications

Poetry

• Kist. Mountrath, Portlaoise, Ireland: Dolmen Press, 1982.
• Hidden Extras. Dublin: Dedalus Press, 1987; London & Wolfeboro, NH: Anvil Press Poetry, 1987.
• Long Story Short. Dublin: Dedalus Press, 1993; London: Anvil Press Poetry, 1993.
• The Bottom Line (chapbook). Dublin: Dedalus Press, 1994.
• Quality Time. London: Anvil Press Poetry, 1997.
• Weather Permitting. London: Anvil Press Poetry, 1999.
• Exemplary Damages. London: Anvil Press Poetry, 2002.
• New and Selected Poems. Anvil Press Poetry, 2004.
• 50 O’Clock (chapbook). Essex, UK: Happy Dragon Press, 2005.
• Reality Check. London: Anvil Press Poetry, 2007; Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 2008.
• All the Living (chapbook). St. Paul, MN: Traffic Street Press, 2008.
• Dear Life. London: Anvil Press Poetry, 2012; Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 2013.
• Update: Poems, 2011-2012. London: Anvil Press Poetry, 2014.
• Newest Poems. Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 2015.

Non-fiction

• Troubled Thoughts, Majestic Dreams: Selected prose writings. Oldcastle, Co. Meath, Ireland: Gallery Press, 2001.
• Stepping Stones: Interview with Seamus Heaney. London: Faber, 2008; New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2008.
• The Outnumbered Poet: Critical essays and autobiographical prose. Oldcastle, Ireland: Gallery, 2013.

Edited

• The Bloodaxe Book of Poetry Quotations. Tarset, UK: Bloodaxe Books, 2006.
  • published in U.S. as Quote Poet Unquote: Contemporary quotations on poets and poetry. Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 2008.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

Irish Arts Center Fall 2011 Poetry Fest - Dennis O'Driscoll reading his poem "Someone"

See also

• List of Irish poets

References

• "Dennis O'Driscoll." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2005. Literature Resource Center. Web. 21 Sep. 2011.
• "About Dennis O'Driscoll." Dennis O'Driscoll. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Sep 2011. <http://dennisodriscoll.com/>.

External links

Poems

• Dennis O'Driscoll (Ireland, 1954-2012) at Poetry International (7 poems).
• Dennis O'Driscoll 1954-2012 at the Poetry Foundation.
• Poetry.

Prose

• O'Driscoll, Dennis. "The Taxman Cometh: A Notebook." Poetry Daily Prose.

Audio / video

• Audio: Dennis O'Driscoll reads "Some Wonder Am I" at Poems Out Loud
• Dennis O'Driscoll at YouTube

About

• Dennis O'Driscoll Official website.
• "Interview by Kieran Owens." The Event Guide.
• Dennis O'Driscoll interview, Mark Thwaite, Ready Steady Book
• "I Sing Ireland Electric: Dennis O'Driscoll's wired, modern picture of Dublin.", Adam Kirsch, April 16, 2003, Slate