Death of Patrick Galvin, Poet and Playwright
Irish Left Review has heard with regret of the death of poet, playwright and memoirist Patrick Galvin who died last night. He is survived by his wife Mary Johnston and his five children. Born in Cork in 1927, Galvin was the author of numerous plays and seven volumes of poetry. A selection of his work may be read here at Poetry International Web.
Fiery, iconoclastic, socialist and anti-establishment and informed by the experience of a politicised working-class childhood in Cork City, as well as by surrealism and his interest in Lorca, his work has always resisted categorisation and certainly seems closer to European or South American writing than anything else produced in Ireland. It has been translated into many languages and was particularly influential on a younger generation of writers from Munster. He was a member of Aosdána.
Patrick Galvin led a remarkably varied life. Born into a political home he spent time incarcerated in an industrial school before joining the RAF at the age of sixteen in 1943. His postings included Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He saw the effects of carpet bombing in European cities at first hand. He spent several years in Spain where he became interested in Spanish writing.
Gifted with a fine and distinctive voice, at one time he made a living as a singer-songwriter, and folksong collector and was encouraged by Seamus Ennis. He recorded several volumes of folksongs and his song James Connolly has been covered by most of the major singers of Irish traditional music, perhaps most notably by Frank Harte, Christy Moore and Liam Weldon. Here he is heard singing the song himself at a house party in New York in 1981. He was a popular and impressive reader of his own work.
He was a co-founder of The Munster Literature Centre and one of the founders of the Dún Laoghaire Poetry Now festival.
He published a three-part fictionalized autobiography: Song for a Poor Boy (Dublin, Raven Arts Press, 1991); and Song for a Raggy Boy (Raven Arts Press, 1992) and Song for a Fly Boy, which was published with the first two as The Raggy Boy Trilogy (Dublin, New Island Books, 2002) and adapted Song For A Raggy Boy, which, among other things chronicles his time in industrial school, for filming by director Aisling Walsh. The film starred Aidan Quinn. His plays were produced all over the world, including in Canada, New York, Australia and London and recorded by RTÉ and the BBC.
From: Message To The Editor
I can’t write now
Because the coffin is too narrow
And there’s no light.
I’m trying to send this
Through a medium
But you know what they’re like -
Table-tapping bastards
Reeking of ectoplasm.
If you manage to receive this
I’d be glad if you’d print it.
There’s no point in asking you
To send me a copy -
I don’t even know my address.
We are indebted to the following sources:
- Patrick Galvin at Poetry International Web
- Patrick Galvin at The Munster Literature Centre
- Patrick Galvin at Irish Writers Online
- Song for A Raggy Boy at the International Movie Database ()
Discussion
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Comment by: Karen Fleming
May 10th 2011 at 18:05
What a lovely tribute to a great man, thanks for posting this. I just heard he died on RTE radio. I never knew he wrote the James Connolly song. I loved the singing of Frank Harte the great singer and song collector from Dublin and his rendition of the song when I first heard it at about the age of seven!The version of P. Galvin singing it himself is brilliant. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.
Comment by: Hugh McFadden
May 10th 2011 at 18:05
Patrick Galvin “carried high that burnin’ flag…” “oh, lay him down with union men on every side”. God rest you, Patrick: you will not be forgotten, for anyone who wrote a song as good as ‘James Connolly’ will not be forgotten.
Comment by: Derry chambers
May 11th 2011 at 09:05
?”…..I was not involved,
I am not involved,
I have no wish to be called
as a witness…”
(Statement on the Burning of Cork - Paddy Galvin)
Suaimhneas síoraí dá anam.
Comment by: Suzie Walsh
May 13th 2011 at 12:05
A sad loss.
Comment by: Michael Treacy
May 13th 2011 at 20:05
Men like Paddy Galvin are few and far between we can ill afford to lose him. Another great Irish Light gone out.