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Micheal O'Siadhail

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Micheal O'Siadhail
Mícheál Ó Siadhail
Born (1947-01-12) January 12, 1947 (age 78)

Micheal O'Siadhail (Irish: Mícheál Ó Siadhail [ˈmʲiːçaːl̪ˠ oː ˈʃiəlʲ]; born 12 January 1947) is an Irish poet. He is a recipient of the 1982 Irish American Culture Institute Prize for Poetry, the 1998 Marten Toonder Prize for Literature, and the Eric Hoffer Award of 2020.[1][2][3]

Early life

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Micheal O'Siadhail was born in Dublín to a middle-class family. His father, a chartered accountant, was from County Monaghan, and his mother was from Dublín, with roots in County Tipperary.

At the age of twelve, O'Siadhail attended the Jesuit boarding school Clongowes Wood College, an experience he later described in some of his poetry.[4] At age thirteen, he visited the Aran Islands, an experience which he said had a significant impact on him.[5]

Career

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Micheal O'Siadhail studied at Trinity College Dublín (1964–68) where his teachers included David H. Greene and Máirtín Ó Cadhain. He was elected as a Scholar of the College and received a First Class Honours Degree. His circle in Trinity included David McConnell, Mary Robinson and David F. Ford.[6] O'Siadhail then took a government exchange scholarship and studied folklore and Icelandic at the University of Oslo.[7] He considers Scandinavian literature to be a major influence.

In 1970 he married Bríd Ní Chearbhaill[8][9], who was born in Gweedore in County Donegal and worked as a teacher.

For seventeen years, O'Siadhail worked in academia; first as a lecturer at Trinity College Dublín (1969–1973), where he was awarded an MLitt in 1971, and then as a research professor at the Dublín Institute for Advanced Studies. During these years, he gave named lectures in Dublín, in Harvard University and in Yale University, and he was a visiting professor at the University of Iceland in 1982. In 1987, he resigned his professorship to write poetry.

He was a member of the Arts Council of the Republic of Ireland (1987–1993), a member of the Advisory Committee on Cultural Relations (1989–1997) and was an editor of the Poetry Ireland Review. He was the founding chairman of ILE (Ireland Literature Exchange). A founding member of Aosdána (Academy of Distinguished Irish Artists), O'Siadhail is part of a circle of artists, where he had worked with the composer Seóirse Bodley and painters Cecil King and Mick O'Dea. In 2008, he gave a reading as part of Brian Friel's 80th birthday celebration.

He represented Ireland at the Poetry Society's European Poetry Festival in London in 1981, as well as at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1997. He was writer-in-residence at the Yeats Summer School in 1991, and then at the University of British Columbia in 2002.

In 2018, O'Siadhail was included in The Tablet magazine's ′Fifty Minds That Matter′ – fifty men and women who are ″adding some Catholic salt to the contemporary cultural soup″.

During his years as an academic, O'Siadhail, writing under the Irish spelling of his name, published works on the linguistics of Irish and a textbook for learners of Irish.

Development

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In 1978, O'Siadhail published his first poetry collection, The Leap Year (originally written in Irish), followed in 1980 by Rungs of Time (originally in Irish)[10] which, in an Edda-adjacent style, announced many of the characteristic themes that would dominate his work. Belonging, published in 1982, was the last of this trio. It emphasized relationships as a major theme. Two more collections, Springnight in 1983 and The Image Wheel in 1985, contained some of his best-known poems, before he began a series of books based on broad themes.[11][3]

The Chosen Garden was published in 1990, and he described it as "an effort to face my own journey, to comprehend and trace one's own tiny epic." In 1992 he published Hail! Madam Jazz: New and Selected Poems which includes the new sequence The Middle Voice. In 1995 came A Fragile City, a meditation in four parts on the theme of trust. Our Double Time, published three years later in 1998, explores the liberation of facing human finitude in a way that allows a greater intensity of living. In 2002, he published The Gossamer Wall, which was shortlisted for the 2003 Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Literary Prize in the fiction category. In 2005 he published Love Life, followed by Globe in 2007.[12][13]

Personal life

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O'Siadhail was married to Bríd O'Siadhail (née Ní Chearbhaill) for 44 years.[14] After she died in 2013,[15] he moved to New York. O’Siadhail is now married to Christina Weltz, who is an assistant professor of surgical oncology at Mount Sinai Hospital.[16]

Bibliography

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Books

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Poetry
  • 1978: The Leap Year / An Bhliain Bhisigh (An Clóchomar, Dublín)
  • 1980: Rungs of Time / Runga (An Clóchomhar, Dublín)
  • 1982: Belonging / Cumann (An Clóchomhar, Dublín)
  • 1985: Springnight (Bluett, Dublín)
  • 1990: The Image Wheel (Bluett, Dublín)
  • 1990: The Chosen Garden (Dedalus, Dublín)
  • 1992: Hail! Madam Jazz: New and Selected Poems including The Middle Voice (Bloodaxe, Newcastle upon Tyne)
  • 1995: A Fragile City (Bloodaxe, Newcastle upon Tyne 1995)
  • 1998: Our Double Time (Bloodaxe, Newcastle, upon Tyne)
  • 1999: Poems 1975–1995 (Bloodaxe, Newcastle upon Tyne)
  • 2002: The Gossamer Wall (Time Being Books (North American publisher) and Bloodaxe, Tarset)
  • 2005: Love Life (Bloodaxe, Tarset)
  • 2007: Globe (Bloodaxe, Tarset)
  • 2010: Tongues (Bloodaxe, Tarset)
  • 2014: Collected Poems (Bloodaxe, Tarset)
  • 2015: One Crimson Thread (Bloodaxe, Tarset; Baylor University Press, Waco, TX)
  • 2018: The Five Quintets (Baylor University Press, Waco, TX)
  • 2022: Testament (Baylor University Press, Waco, TX)
  • 2023: Desire (Baylor University Press, Waco, TX)
Linguistics and language pedagogy

Limited editions

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  • 1989 Four Poems (with artist Cecil King) Editions Monica Beck

About O'Siadhail and his work

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  • 2007: The Musics of Belonging: The Poetry of Micheal O'Siadhail Ed. Marc Caball and David F. Ford, Carysfort Press, Dublín
  • 2008: A Hazardous Melody of Being: Seóirse Bodley's Song Cycles on the Poems of Micheal O'Siadhail Edited by Lorraine Byrne Bodley, Carysfort Press, Dublín
  • 2009: An Unexpected Light: Theology and Witness in the Poetry and Though of Charles Williams, Micheal O'Siadhail and Geoffrey Hill, David C. Mahan, Pickwick Publications Eugene

Works set to music

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  • 1987: The Naked Flame, poem suite (music: Seóirse Bodley) RTÉ commissioned for performance and broadcasting
  • 1993: Summerfest poem suite (Music: Colman Pearce) RTÉ commissioned for performance and broadcasting
  • 2000: Earlsfort Suite song cycle (Music: Seóirse Bodley) commissioned for Irish Government Department of Arts, the Gaeltacht, Heritage and the Islands as part of the Millennium Frozen Music celebration
  • 2000: A Fall set by Dan Tucker, commissioned by the Chicago Humanities Festival,
  • 2002: Dublín Spring, poem suite (music: James Wilson) commissioned for performance.
  • 2006: Twee gedichten van Micheal O'Siadhail for Choir 2006 by Kees van Ersel
  • 2007: Squall set by Seóirse Bodley

Discography

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  • The Naked Flame, poem suite (music: Seóirse Bodley) recorded by Aylish E. Kerrigan accompanied on piano by the composer Seóirse Bodley and available from Ein Klang, Christophestaße, Stuttgart 70178
  • Cosmos from Hail! Madam Jazz recorded by Helen Shapiro on Jazz Poetry ABM

References

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  1. ^ "Micheal O'Siadhail's workshop". The Guardian. 12 September 2005. Retrieved 9 July 2011.
  2. ^ "Literature Ireland |". www.literatureireland.com. Retrieved 2 April 2025.
  3. ^ a b "Interview with Micheal O'Siadhail". New Dublin Press. 24 September 2014. Retrieved 2 March 2025.
  4. ^ "Why Micheal O'Siadhail is an epic poet for the 21st century". America Magazine. 25 October 2019. Retrieved 28 December 2024.
  5. ^ "Irish Literary Supplement, Volume 26, Number 1 — 1 September 2006 — Boston College Newspapers". newspapers.bc.edu. Retrieved 28 December 2024.
  6. ^ Torrance, Iain R. (1 May 2019). "An Astonishing Poetic Tour de Force". The Expository Times. 130 (8): 357–359. doi:10.1177/0014524619831216. ISSN 0014-5246.
  7. ^ De Breffny, Brian (1983). Ireland: A Cultural Encyclopedia. London: Thames and Hudson. p. 176.
  8. ^ Manitoba - //www.umanitoba.ca, University of (27 April 2014). "Another favourite poem by Micheal O'Siadhail". Retrieved 20 March 2025. {{cite web}}: External link in |last= (help)
  9. ^ "A love that endured for 44 years". Irish Echo Newspaper. Retrieved 20 March 2025.
  10. ^ De Breffny, pg. 176
  11. ^ "Emory University News Release - irish". www.emory.edu. Retrieved 2 March 2025.
  12. ^ "Globe". Pigeonhouse Books, Dublin. Retrieved 24 March 2025.
  13. ^ O'Siadhail, Micheal (2005). Love Life. Bloodaxe. ISBN 978-1-85224-707-2.
  14. ^ "My cultural life: poet Micheal O'Siadhail". Irish Independent. 8 October 2018. Retrieved 26 March 2025.
  15. ^ "Wife and muse of poet Micheal O'Siadhail". The Irish Times. Retrieved 26 March 2025.
  16. ^ "An ode to great loves". Irish Independent. 26 October 2015. Retrieved 26 March 2025.
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