Literature
Michael Viney
Michael Viney was born in Brighton, England, in 1933 and after a long career in newspapers and television was widely known for his Another Life column in the Irish Times. This chronicle of rural life and ecological affairs began in 1977, when he moved with his family to a remote smallholding at Thallabawn on the Mayo coast.
His book A Year’s Turning (1996) showed his creativity as an artist and a growing empathy with nature. Other publications include: Ireland: A Smithsonian Natural History (2003); A Living Island: Ireland’s Responsibility to Nature (2003) and, with his wife Ethna, A Wildlife Narrative (1999).
Among television films he devised and directed in the 1990s were documentary profiles of Michael Longley and Tim Robinson shown by RTE and Channel Four. In 2004 he received a D. Litt (Honoris Causa) from Trinity College, Dublin and in 2017 was elected to the Royal Irish Academy.