The Board of the Arts Council has announced, with deep regret, that Maureen Kennelly will step down as Director of the Arts Council in June.
Aosdana sends good wishes to Arts Council Director
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Aosdána expresses its sadness at the death of visual artist and member, Michael Kane
Photograph by ©Bryan O’Brien for The Irish Times, Michael Kane studio, April 2025
Born in Dublin in 1935, Michael Kane has been considered one of Ireland’s finest and most innovative artists.
Aosdana expresses its sadness at the passing of poet and member Paul Durcan
Photo credit: Conor Horgan
Born in Dublin in 1944, Paul Durcan studied Archaeology and Medieval History at University College Cork. His first solo collection of poetry, O Westport in the Light of Asia Minor, won the Patrick Kavanagh Award in 1975.
President Michael D. Higgins confers the honour of Saoi of Aosdána on Paul Muldoon
Uachtarán na hÉireann, President Michael D. Higgins this morning conferred the honour of Saoi of Aosdána on the poet Paul Muldoon.
Read MoreAosdána expresses great sadness at the passing of the distinguished Irish writer, Edna O’Brien
Aosdána expresses great sadness at the passing of the distinguished Irish writer, Edna O’Brien, who has passed away at the age of 93. Elected to Aosdána by her peers and fellow Irish artists, she was honoured with the title Saoi in 2015.
Continue readingAosdána new members gathering
New Aosdána members, elected at the General Assembly in March 2024, gathered yesterday at the Arts Council to learn more about the affiliation of creative artists in Ireland and what it means to be a member.
The event was attended by Sinead Ni Mhaoinigh (Visual Art), Catherine Dunne (Literature), Louise Lowe (Literature), Roisin Henghan (Architecture) and Andrew Hamilton (Music). The other new members elected in March 2024 are Paul Lynch (literature); Ed Bennett (muisc) and Shaun Davey (music).
The members had an opportunity to meet each other as well as members of the Arts Council. Arts Council Director Maureen Kennelly welcomed the new members. The members listened to a presentation on Aosdána covering Membership; the General Assembly; Nominations and Election; Saoi; Toscaireacht; Cnuas and Administration, as well as hearing about Promotion and Special Projects.
The presentation can be found here Welcome to Aosdána Presentation_13.06.24.pdf
Aosdána expresses deep regret at the passing of Thomas Kilroy.
Aosdána and the Arts Council express deep regret at the passing of playwright, writer and Aosdána member Thomas Kilroy.
Aosdána elects 5 new members
Today, Aosdána, the affiliation of creative artists in Ireland, elects five new members. The five newly elected members are: Anne Enright (Literature); Amanda Coogan (Visual Art); Rachel Joynt (Visual Art); Diana Copperwhite (Visual Art); Linda Buckley (music). This brings the total membership to 250 members.
Continue readingAosdána expresses great sadness on the death of John Kinsella
Born in 1932, John Kinsella was one of Ireland’s foremost composers .He spent much of his early life as a composer while also working in RTÉ, initially in radio production and later as Director of Music. He retired as Director of Music in RTÉ in 1998 to concentrate of full-time composition.
He produced a substantial compositional output, initially in serialist-modernist styles, before a major re-evaluation and shift of approach in 1979 after which he developed a more personal tonally-centred style. A masterful orchestrator, amongst the large output of predominantly instrumental music are a remarkable eleven symphonies, several concertos for different instruments and a great diversity of chamber music, including a series of very fine string quartets.
His work has been widely performed and recorded, and he received the Marten Toonder Award in 1979 and was a founder member of Aosdána in 1981. In 2019 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Concert Hall.
Arts Council Chair Professor Kevin Rafter commented:
“John Kinsella leaves behind a great legacy, both the large body of musical work which will live on and delight audiences in concert halls and recordings for many generations to come, and his place in the affections by so many people who were fortunate to know him as a gentle and warm artist and human being. He will be sorely missed, but leaves us greatly the richer for his time amongst us.”
Aosdána expresses great loss at the passing of poet and former member Máire Mhac an tSaoi
The poet Máire Mhac an tSaoi photographed near her home in Howth, Co Dublin. Photograph Frank Miller / The Irish Times
Aosdána expresses great loss at the passing of poet and former member Máire Mhac an tSaoi. A tribute from fellow Aosdána member and poet, Thomas Mc Carthy.
“What a poet was Mhac an tSaoi, brave, scholarly, passionate, loyal, uncompromising. With her, poetry belonged to a moral universe, it was part of that immortal, necessary, vital grammar of humanistic thought. Each poem she wrote was as permanent as a stone monument, and as carefully planned and chiselled out of words and spirit. She couldn’t conceive of a poem that didn’t intend to be immortal and everything she wrote has the mark of her fastidious grandeur and national essence. She wrote the most dramatic poems about love, the possessive love of lovers, but also the most tender, yearning poems about motherhood and childhood. ‘Codhladh an Gaiscigh,’ ‘Cré na Mná Tí’ and ‘Ceathrúintí Mháire Ní Ogáin’ are works that have already attached themselves to the permanent fabric of Irish culture; they teach us what love is, what womanhood is, and what it means to have the energy to renew culture by simply being fully alive within it. She will be missed terribly, yet she will live forever.”
Thomas Mc Carthy