Iremonger, Valentin

(1918-1991)

   Irish poet born in Dublin, he was educated at the Christian Brothers' at Mhuire, County Longford, and at the Abbey Theatre School of Acting, Dublin. From 1940 to 1946 he was actor and producer at Abbey and Gate theatres. From 1946 and for nearly 20 years he was in the Irish diplomatic service in 1946, and was Ambassador to Sweden, Norway, Finland, India, Luxembourg and Portugal. He was poetry editor of Envoy (1949-1951) and with Samuel Beckett and Brian Coffey (see entries) he is credited with introducing modernism to Irish poetry. In 1945 he won the Æ (George William Russell) Memorial Prize for a manuscript collection of poems. He died in Dublin. Some of his poetry publications: One Recent Evening, 1944. On the Barricades, 1944. Reservations, 1950. Horan's Field and Other Reservations, 1972. Sandymount Dublin: New and Selected Poems, 1988. Some of his poems: "Clear View in Summer," "Evening in Summer," "Going Down the Mountain," "Hector," "Icarus," "The Toy Horse," "These Apple Trees," "This Houre Her Vigill."

   Sources: An Anthology of Irish Verse: The Poetry of Ireland from Mythological Times to the Present. Padraic Colum, ed. Liveright, 1948. Contemporary Irish Poetry: An Anthology. Anthony Bradley, ed. University of California Press. New and rev. ed., 1988. Biography of Valentin Iremonger (http:// archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/IrelandGenWeb/2002-07/1025887586). Modern Irish Poetry. Patrick Crotty, ed. The Blackstaff Press, 1995. New Irish Poets. Devin A. Garrity, ed. Devin-Adair, 1948. 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 Book of Irish Verse: XVIIth Century-XXth Century. Donagh MacDonagh and Leenox Robinson, eds. Oxford University Press, 1958.