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Colm Breathnach
Colm Breathnach was born in Cork in 1961. His father, Seán, came from Cobh, Co. Cork and worked as a clerk in the Electricity Supply Board. Colm’s mother, Eithne, hails from Baile ...view moreColm Breathnach was born in Cork in 1961. His father, Seán, came from Cobh, Co. Cork and worked as a clerk in the Electricity Supply Board. Colm’s mother, Eithne, hails from Baile Nóra in Co. Cork. There were four boys in the family of which Colm is the third. He attended Pearse College, Glanmire, Co. Cork and the National University of Ireland, Cork. His MA thesis was on the work of the early twentieth-century Irish language poet Liam S. Gógan. After university, Colm spent a number of years working on Foclóir na Nua-Ghaeilge, in the Royal Irish Academy. He took up a post in Rannóg an Aistriúcháin, which provides translation services for the Houses of the Oireachtas. Colm then spent eleven years as a terminologist with An Coiste Téarmaíochta (the Terminological Committee) before returning to Rannóg an Aistriúcháin in 1997. He has been living in Co. Kildare since 1986.
Caintic an bhalbháin (Coiscéim, 1991) won Duais Bhardas Chorcaí (the Cork City Council Award) in the Irish language literary competitions (An tOireachtas) in 1991. Scáthach (Coiscéim, 1994) and Croí agus Carraig (Coiscéim, 1995) both won first prize for poetry in the same competition in 1994 and 1995 respectively. In 1999 he was awarded the Irish American Cultural Institute’s Butler Prize for his poetry. He was awarded an Oireachtas prize in the Light Fiction category for Con Trick an Bhalla Bháin (Cló Iar-Chonnacht, 2009), a unique metaphysical work which examines the relationship between the reader and the author.
In collaboration with Dr Andrea Nic Thaidhg, Colm translated the novel by Günter Grass’ Katz und Maus from German to Irish as Cat agus Luch (Coiscéim, 2000). He also translated the Grass Nobel lecture under the title Leanfar de. His work is much anthologised and has been extensively translated into German, Italian, Scots Gaelic, English and French. His collection An Fear Marbh (Cló Iar-Chonnacht, 1998) has appeared in Romanian through publisher Ars Longa, Barbatul fara viaa (Iasi, 1999). He is featured in the Encyclopaedia of Ireland.view less