Seán Dunne (1956–1995) was a
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 ...
born in
Waterford
Waterford ( ) is a City status in Ireland, city in County Waterford in the South-East Region, Ireland, south-east of Ireland. It is located within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster. The city is situated at the head of Waterford H ...
,
Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
.
Career
Dunne edited several anthologies, beginning with ''The Poets of Munster'' (1985) and finishing with the ''Ireland Anthology'' which was completed posthumously by George O'Brien and Dunne's partner Trish Edelstein. He released 3 collections of poems. Dunne's collections of poems were all well received, and in order of release are: ''Against the Storm'' (1985), ''The Sheltered Nest'' (1992)
and ''Time and the Island''. The account of his childhood ''In My Father's House,'' published in 1991, was a bestseller.
Life
Dunne's father was Richard Dunne. His mother died in 1960 when Dunne was four.
[''In My Father's House'' Anna Livia Press Ltd, 1991] Seán attended Scoil Lorcain primary school in St Johns Park and Mount Sion secondary school in Waterford city, where he wrote for the school magazine and participated in organising poetry and music evenings. He attended
University College Cork
University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC) () is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland, and located in Cork (city), Cork.
The university was founded in 1845 as one of three Queen's Universit ...
(UCC) where he was taught by
Sean Lucy and
John Montague and was part of a stream of talent issuing from the university in that period, which included
Maurice Riordan,
Gregory O'Donoghue,
Theo Dorgan,
Thomas McCarthy,
William Wall,
Gerry Murphy,
Greg Delanty and others. He became part of a group referred to as "the Cork poets", despite not being from Cork himself. He was active in student politics, as detailed in his memoir ''The Road to Silence''.
After college Dunne settled in
Cork where he worked in the city library and continued to write and publish poems. Around this time he began to make a living from freelance journalism. He joined the ''
Cork Examiner'' daily newspaper as a columnist.
Dunne died on 3 August 1995 of a heart problem, aged 39.
[''Time And The Island'' The Gallery Press, 1996]["Striken Blackbird" article - The Irish Times Weekend Review, Saturday January 28, 2006]
He had three children. His son,
Gavin Dunne, is a successful
independent musician based in Cork.
Sean Dunne Writers Festival
In 1996
Waterford City Council inaugurated the Seán Dunne Writers Weekend in his honour. In 2002, under the auspices of the Waterford City Arts Office it became a festival. A major part of it was the Seán Dunne Young Writers Awards.
Over the years the festival featured writers and poets such as author
John McGahern, writer and former Taoiseach
Garret FitGerald, Playwright and autho
Danny Morrison author
Tom Paulin,
Conor O'Callaghan and
MacDara Woods, with
performance poets Eamon Carr and Raven. It also featured
A. L. Kennedy,
Paul Carson, journalist
Declan Lynch and a veritable who's who of contemporary Irish Literature.
In 2012 Waterford Library took up the reins of the festival and soon after it was realigned and rebrande
The Waterford Writers Weekend
Today Seán's legacy lives on with his books available fro
The Gallery Press There are also readings of his work at the annual Waterford Poetry Day and a poetry competition in his honour for Primary School children.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunne, Sean
1956 births
1995 deaths
20th-century Irish poets
20th-century Irish male writers