Literature
Liam Ó Muirthile
Liam Ó Muirthile was a poet and writer. Born in Cork City in 1950, he learned Irish at school and in the Irish speaking region of West Kerry. His first collection of poetry was Tine Chnámh in 1984 which received the Irish-American Cultural Institute’s literary award and the major Oireachtas prize for poetry.
He received the Butler Award in 1996 for his novel Ar Bhruach na Laoi, and both the Arts Council Prize and Gradam Chló Iar-Chonnacht for his third collection of poems Walking Time agus Dánta eile. Liam also wrote for the stage. Amharclann de hÍde produced his play Tine Chnámh in the Project Theatre in Dublin in 1993. His play Fear an Tae was produced in the Andrew’s Lane Theatre, Dublin in 1995, and Liodán na hAbhann was staged in the Crypt Theatre in Dublin Castle in 2000. He wrote a weekly column, An Peann Coitianta, for the Irish Times from 1989 to 2003.
His published works include: Tine Chnámh (1984), An Peann Coitianta (1991), Dialann Bóthair (1992), Ar Bhruach na Laoi (1995), An Peann Coitianta 2 (1997), Liodán na hAbhann (1999), Fear an Tae (1999), Walking Time agus Dánta Eile (2000), Gaothán (2000), An Seileitleán (2004), Sister Elizabeth ag Eitilt (2005), Ar an bPeann (Winter 2005), Dánta Déanta (Winter 2005), ÁÉÍÓÚ (Spring 2006).
Translations of various Ó Muirthile poems are in the following publications: An Tonn Gheal/The Bright Wave, Dermot Bolger (editor), Jumping Off Shadows, Selected Contemporary Irish Poets, Greg Delanty & Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill (editors), Introductions, Modern Poetry in Translation, Series Three, No.1,(Bernard O’Donoghue) and Anthologie de la poésie Irlandaise du xxe siècle, Jean-Yves Masson (editor). Various single poems have been translated in German, French, Italian, Hungarian and Romanian collections.