Brendan Kennelly Kennelly’s poetry can be scabrous, down-to-earth and colloquial. He avoids intellectual pretension and literary posturing, and his attitude to poetic language could be summed up in the title of one of his epic poems, “Poetry my Arse”. Another long (400 page) epic poem, “The Book of Judas”, published in 1991, topped the Irish bestseller list. He is a prolific and fluent writer, with more than twenty books of poems to his credit, including My Dark Fathers (1964), Collection One: Getting Up Early (1966), Good Souls to Survive (1967), Dream of a Black Fox (1968), Love Cry (1972), The Voices (1973), Shelley in Dublin (1974), A Kind of Trust (1975), Islandman (1977), A Small Light (1979) and The House That Jack Didn’t Build (1982). Kennelly is no stranger to literary controversy, particularly in works such as “Cromwell”, about the English Roundhead and Puritan whose army sacked the small Irish city of Drogheda and slaughtered its Royalist garrison and townspeople in 1649. Kennelly has edited several other anthologies, including “Between Innocence and Peace: Favourite Poems of Ireland” (1993), “Ireland’s Women: Writings Past and Present, with Katie Donovan and A. Norman Jeffares” (1994), and “Dublines,” with Katie Donovan (995). He is also the author of two novels, “The Crooked Cross” (1963) and “The Florentines” (1967), and three plays in a Greek Trilogy, Antigone, Medea and The Trojan Women. Kennelly is an Irish language (Gaelic) speaker, and has translated Irish poems in “A Drinking Cup” (1970) and “Mary” (Dublin 1987). A selection of his collected translations was published as “Love of Ireland: Poems from the Irish” (1989). John B. Keane, A son of William B. Keane and Hannah Purtill, he was educated at Listowel National School and then at St. Michael's College, Listowel. He worked as a chemist's assistant for A.H Jones - a chemist who dabbled in buying antiques. Keane had various jobs in the UK between 1951 and 1955, and was a pub owner in Listowel from 1955. He married Mary O'Connor and had four children. He was an Honorary Life Member of the Royal Dublin Society from 1991, served as president of Irish PEN and was a founder member of the Society of Irish Playwrights and a member of Aosdána. He remained a prominent member of the Fine Gael party throughout his life, never being shy of political debate. In his life John B. Keane published 46 works. He died at his home in Listowel - a popular public house - aged 73 from prostate cancer. In 2007 a lifesize bronze statue by Clare sculptor Seamus Connolly to Keane was erected in his beloved Listowel during Writers week. His nephew is the award winning investigative journalist Fergal Keane. His son John is a journalist with the Kilkenny People. Bryan MacMahon, 1909-1998 [Bryan Michael], b. 29 Sept., Listowel, Co. Kerry; ed. St Michael’s College, Listowel, where one of his teachers was Seamus Wilmot; St. Patrick’s Training College, Drumcondra; spent 44 years as national school-teacher, becoming principal of Listowel National School; m. Kitty (Catherine) Ryan, 1936, and ran a bookshop in her name; prominent member of local amateur dramatic society; contrib. poems and short stories to The Bell (beginning with poem, ‘‘House Sinister’’, in second issue), and won Bell Award for fiction in a late issue (unpaid); The Lion-tamer and Other Stories (1948), highly regarded by reviewers - e.g., by Irish Book Lover (1949); plays incl. The Bugle in the Blood (Abbey, March 1949); The Song of the Anvil (Abbey, 1960), music by Seán O Riada; The Honey Spike (Abbey, 1961; revived 1993), on a homewards journey made by travellers; knew Shelta language of the travellers; became stockholder in the Abbey; friend and contemporary of Francis MacManus; close friend of John B. Keane and co-founder of Listowel Players and Listowel Writers’ Week; member of Irish Academy of Letters, and of Aosdána; awarded LL.D for his services to Irish writing by National University of Ireland, 1972; The Master (1992), autobiography of a career in teaching and winner of American Ireland Literary Award, 1993; The Storyman (1994), autobiography describing his life as a writer; d. 13 Feb., Beaumont Hosp., Dublin, after an illness of some months; A Final Fling (1998), stories of ‘conversations between men and women’; supporter of Gaelic football; a son, Garry, played for Kerry; his obituary appeared in The Irish Times, 14 Feb. 1998; posthum. novel published by Brandon as Hero Town(2004). DIL DIW      George Fitzmaurice - Writer 1877- 1963 George Fitzmaurice was born in 1877 in the family home, Bedford House, just outside Listowel on the Ballylongford road. With his father's death in 1891, the family was forced to move to a farmhouse in Kilcara, outside the village of Duagh. Local stories tell of 'Master George' being seen composing his plays in the woods, in the parlour of his home, as well as in a large 15 acre top field on their farm. George was inspired by the colourful characters he met, as well as the people's stumbling attempts, at the end of the 19th Century, to speak English instead of Irish. He moved to Dublin where he was employed by the Civil Service. His earliest writings were published in Dublin weeklies between 1900 and 1907. His first major success came in 1907 with an Abbey production of his comedy The Country Dressmaker. One of Fitzmaurice's most notorious characters, Luke Quilter, the man from the mountains, appears in this play that proved hugely popular with audiences, much to the surprise of one W.B. Yeats. His second play, a dramatic fantasy entitled The Pie Dish, was totally rejected by critics and considered blasphemous. It led to the rejection of what is now understood as one of his best plays, another dramatic fantasy, The Dandy Dolls. Ironically, the Abbey Theatre produced this play in 1969, six years after his death. Other well-known plays by Fitzmaurice include The Magic Glasses, The Moonlighter, The Enchanted Land and One Evening Gleam. A selection of short stories, The Crows of Mephistopheles, was published in 1970 by the Dolmen Press. He died alone, at 3 Harcourt Street, Dublin, in 1963, at the age of 86.   Maurice Walsh - Writer 1879-1964  (1879-1964) was an Irish novelist best known for the short story The Quiet Man which was later made into a Oscar nominated movie directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara. Walsh was born in 1879 in Lisselton near Listowel, Co. Kerry, Ireland. There are two noted people with the name Maurice Walsh. One was an Irish novelist and the other was the translator of Buddhist Book Digha Nikaya. Maurice Walsh was born in Ballydonoghue on 2 May 1879. He entered the British civil service in 1901 and was appointed to the excise department in the Highland of Scotland. On the setting up of the Irish Free State in 1922 he returned home to help build up the customs and excise service of the new State. He retired in 1933 and died in Dublin on 18 February 1964. His first novel, The Key Above The Door, appeared in 1923. subsequently he wrote twenty novels and numerous short stories. The short story upon which the Academy Award film, The Quiet Man, was based was first published in 1934. one of his novels, Trouble In The Glen, was filmed in England 1954. His novels are set either in the highlands of Scotland or the lowlands of north Kerry. Scotland had an extraordinary fascination for him and eight of his stories came 'out of the heather'. The following is a list of the titles of his full-length books (his publisher was Chambers of Edinburgh): The Key Above The Door(1923), While Rivers Run (1926), The Small Dark Man (1929), Blackcock's Feather (1932), The Road To Nowhere (1934), Green Rushes (1935), And No Quarter (1937), Sons Of The Swordmaker (1938), The Hill Is Mine (1940), Son Of Apple (1940), Thomasheen James, Man Of No-work (1941), The Spanish Lady (1943), The Man In Brown (1945), Castle Gillian (1948), Trouble In The Glen (1950), Son Of The Tinker And Other Tales, (1951), The Honest Fishermen (1954), A Strange Woman's Daughter (1954), Danger Under The Moon (1956), and The Smart Fellow (1964).