Paul Durcan

Born in Dublin in 1944 to a family involved with the legal profession. Paul Durcan has been recognised as a major voice in Irish poetry. Known for his distinctive narrative style of blended personal experiences and social commentary that was often surreal and humorous.

He moved to London in 1966 where he worked for the North Thames Gas Board and continued to write poetry. His first collection, Endsville, was published in 1967 which he co-authored with Brian Lynch. It was also in 1967 that he met his future wife Nessa O’Neill who he married the following year and had two daughters, Sarah and Siabhra. In the 1970s they returned to Ireland where he returned to college in UCC to study archaeology and medieval history.

His work won him much recognition, and awards, including the 'Patrick Kavanagh award' for his first solo publication O Westport in the light of Asia Minor (1975), an award named after his friend and literary mentor.

He continued to release more than 20 collections until his death, including The Berlin Wall Café (1985), explored the end of his marriage to Nessa O’Neill, and Daddy, Daddy (1990), which won the Whitbread Poetry Award for its poignant elegies to his father. 

In 1990 he made an appearance on the Van Morrision album Enlightenment.

His personal archive was donated the National Library of Ireland. The archive, covering a period from the 1960s until his death included an array of notebooks, letters and cards. He was a prolific letter writer who correspondent with fellow writers Seamus Heaney, Brian Friel and John McGahern

During the early 2000s he performed a weekly national address on RTÉ Radio 1’s Today with Pat Kenny show. Between 2004 and 2007 he was the Ireland Professor of Poetry. In 2014 he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement at the Irish Book Awards.

He passed away on the 17th May 2025.