Posted 05 March 2009
Belfast born poet Michael Longley, Professor of Poetry for Ireland reads a selection of his poetry at UCD
Michael Longley, the current holder of the Ireland Chair of Poetry, who seldom gives public readings, recently read a selection of his poetry at a special event at University College Dublin.
The Ireland Chair of Poetry was the first cross-border academic chair and is co-funded by the two Arts Councils in Ireland, Queen’s University Belfast, Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin. It was established in 1998 to honour the achievements of contemporary Irish poets and to commemorate the achievement of Seamus Heaney winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995.
| Prof Michael Longley reads a selection of his poetry at UCD | |
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| Filesize | 46.20 MB |
| Duration | 50:34 |
Born in Belfast in 1939, Longley was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and Trinity College Dublin. His first collection of poems ‘No Continuing City: Poems 1963-1968’ was published in 1969.
His collection ‘Poems 1963-1983’ was published in 1985. ‘The Echo Gate: Poems 1975-1979’ was published in 1979 and the acclaimed ‘Gorse Fires’ in 1991 which won the Whitbread Poetry Award. In 2000, he published ‘The Weather in Japan’ which won the Hawthornden Prize, the T. S. Eliot Prize and the Belfast Arts Award for Literature.
In 2001, Longley was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. Longley’s ‘Collected Poems’ was published in 2006.
The Ireland Chair of Poetry is held for three years. During which time the holder spends a term in residence at each of the three Universities. Next year Michael Longley will spend a term at University College Dublin. Longley is the 4th Professor of Poetry and previous Chairs include: John Montague, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, and Paul Durcan.
