Imprint: Writers in Profile

Paul Durcan – Imprint: Writer in Profile

11th April 2019

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This episode with Paul Durcan begins with his interest in sport in his early childhood. He explains that he started writing poetry at 14 years old in the hope of attracting interest from girls. Durcan outlines his powerful relationship and mentorship with Michael Hartnett and how his influence led him to the work of James […]

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Imprint: Writers in Profile

Dermot Bolger – Imprint: Writer in Profile

11th April 2019

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Novelist and poet Dermot Bolger sits down with Theo Dorgan to discuss his life and work. In particular, he explores the misperception of his writing as ‘realism’, his establishment of Raven Arts and his admiration of W.B. Yeats. Other topics are  discussed including dealing with death and loss, criticism and ‘coincidental writing’. Bolger compares the […]

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Imprint: Writers in Profile

Leland Bardwell – Imprint: Writer in Profile

5th April 2019

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The late Leland Bardwell discusses her early childhood spent in India with her Irish parents. The family returned to Ireland when she was 2 years old and it was here that she would later carve a career as a novelist and poet. Bardwell outlines her trajectory from first publication for Arena Magazine in the ‘60s, […]

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Imprint: Writers in Profile

John Montague – Imprint: Writer in Profile

2nd April 2019

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John Montague was an Irish poet who was born in Brooklyn, New York, but grew up in Tyrone, Ireland. At the time this programme was made, Montague was Ireland Professor of Poetry at Trinity College, Dublin. In this generous interview, Montague reflects on studying in college where he discovered that ‘there were such things called […]

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Imprint: Writers in Profile

Michael Longley – Imprint: Writer in Profile

2nd April 2019

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Irish poet Michael Longley was born in Belfast in 1939. In this episode, Longley discusses growing up in Northern Ireland where he wrote his first poems at sixteen to impress a girl he fancied. He then leads us to life in Trinity College, Dublin, his friendships with Derek Mahon and  Brendan Kennelly and the effects […]

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Imprint: Writers in Profile

Eavan Boland – Imprint: Writer in Profile

2nd April 2019

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Irish poet Eavan Boland was born in Dublin, Ireland, but moved to London at the age of six. where she had her first experience of anti-Irish sentiment. She returned to Ireland to study at Trinity College, Dublin, and was also educated in New York. In this episode, Dorgan and Boland delve into her self-consciousness about […]

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Imprint: Writers in Profile

Nuala Ní Dhomnaill – Imprint: Writer in Profile

1st April 2019

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In this Writer in Profile interview, Irish-language poet Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill discusses her early childhood in England where she grew up speaking both English and Irish. At the age of five, she went to live with her aunt in Co Kerry and was spurred to write Irish-language poetry after her first visit to the Gaeltacht. […]

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Brendan Kennelly – Imprint: Writer in Profile

20th March 2019

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Irish poet and novelist Brendan Kennelly is a prolific author of over 20 poetry collections as well as plays, novels and criticism. In this episode, his work including My Dark Fathers and four plays – Antigone, Medea, The Trojan Women and Blood Wedding is explored. Theo Dorgan and Kennelly then delve into the role of […]

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Documentary

Patrick Kavanagh: No Man’s Fool

22nd February 2019

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Sé Merry Doyle’s award-winning Patrick Kavanagh: No Man’s Fool is a rich visual journey, exposing the contradiction that existed between Kavanagh’s public persona and his poetry. The film maps out Kavanagh’s life from his native Inniskeen in County Monaghan, to Dublin where he spent most of his life. Against the odds he survived great poverty […]

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Drama

Mr. Yeats and the Beastly Coins

24th February 2017

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In the wake of the Irish Civil War and the establishment of the new Irish Free State, this film documents the creation of a new coinage for Ireland in 1926. Poet, William Butler Yeats was already an internationally renowned figure when invited to chair the design committee for a set of coins which would proudly befit the new state. However, not everyone […]

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