Conleth O'Connor (1947–1993) was an Irish
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
.
Early life
O'Connor was born in 1947. His family were from
Dún Laoghaire
Dún Laoghaire ( , ) is a suburban coastal town in County Dublin in Ireland. It is the administrative centre of the county of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown. The town was built up alongside a small existing settlement following 1816 legislation th ...
, but he grew up in
Camolin, County Wexford
Camolin () is a village in County Wexford in Ireland, situated in the valley of the River Bann on the R772 regional road northeast of Ferns. As of the 2016 census, the village had a population of 415 people.
Transport
Camolin railway sta ...
.
Career
O'Connor published four collections of poetry and was elected to
Aosdána, an elite association of Irish artists, serving as Toscaire (co-leader) in 1990. He worked at the Irish Writers Centre and Irish Writers Union. He contributed to ''
The Great Book of Ireland'' and died in 1993.
He most admired
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...
,
Paul Celan and
Miroslav Holub.
described O'Connor as "one of Ireland's most distinctive and experimental poets until his premature death in 1993, dissecting the realities of modern Irish life."
Anne Haverty wrote a poem in his honour in a 1997 issue of ''Books Ireland'', "Death's Gift."
Bibliography
Poetry
* ''Trinities'' (1976)
* ''The Judas Cry'' (1979)
* ''Behind the Garden Gnomes'' (1982)
* ''A Corpse Auditions Its Mourners: New and Selected Poems'' (1987)
* ''Nights without Stars, Days Without Sun: Selected Poems'' (1997; posthumous)
Plays
* ''The Re-Incarnation of Mr. Dogsbody''
* ''Two Letters and Overtime''
Personal life
O'Connor was married to Frances, a
ceramicist; they had one child, Breffni.
He was a close friend of the writer
Dermot Bolger.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:OConnor, Conleth
1947 births
1993 deaths
Irish male poets
Aosdána members
20th-century Irish poets
Writers from County Wexford