Durcan, Paul

(1944- )

   Dublin poet, a member of Aosdána, he studied archaeology and medieval history at University College, Cork. He has been outspoken in his condemnation of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland from the 1970s onward. His poems are often topical, as in his long narrative poem Six Nuns die in Convent Inferno, based on a fire in a Dublin convent in 1986. His 1985 collection, The Berlin Wall Café, relates the painful breakdown of his own marriage, and Daddy, Daddy (1990) addresses the relationship with his father. He has won four prestigious literary awards. Some of his other publications: Westport in the Light of Asia Minor, 1975. The Selected Paul Durcan, 1982. Going Home to Russia, 1987. A Snail in My Prime: New and Selected Poems, 1993. Greetings to Our Friends in Brazil, 1999. Cries of an Irish Caveman, 2001. Some of his other poems: "10.30 A.M. Mass, June 16, 1985," "Around the Corner from Francis Bacon," "In Memory of Those Murdered in the Dublin Massacre," "Ireland 1972," "Ireland 1977," "The Pietà's Over," "The Turkish Carpet," "The Weeping Headstones of the Isaac Becketts."

   Sources: Bitter Harvest, an Anthology of Contemporary Irish Verse. John Montague, ed. Scribner's, 1989. Biography of Paul Durcan (http://www.irishwriters-online.com/ pauldurcan.html). Modern Irish Poetry. Patrick Crotty, ed. The Blackstaff Press, 1995. Life and Work of Paul Durcan (http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth01J17P482412620204). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia).