My Limerick Town

By Desmond O'Grady

I was, I am hesitant to admit, like many of Desmond’s old school friends aware - yes - of Desmond O’Grady the Limerick poet - but was unaware of the extent, depth and importance of his work to contemporary poetry and of this great poet’s work and his contribution to the art of poetry over the past fifty years.

That he is, in the words of Seamus Heaney “one of the senior figures in Irish Literary life - exemplary in the way he has committed himself over the decades to the vocation of poetry and has lived his life selflessly for the art” is further emphasis on our necessity immediately in Limerick to respect this poet and his work. That this should be done in a greater singularly emphatic manner domestically is an immediate necessity. To create a Limerick domestic intellectual implement by which we can develop this relationship around the world to complement the poet’s association with his native city is represented in this publication by Revival Press.

I had suggested to my good friend Desmond, on one of his visits to Limerick, that he consider putting all his poems, which related to Limerick, in a specific volume – a special Limerick book. This would be for students of contemporary poetry, lovers of poetry generally and especially lovers of Limerick. Equally this book should be seen on the desks of all those people and associations who desire to elevate and promote Limerick and its beautiful city across the world for its historical, cultural and modern economic, social success and achievement.

............ Each one of the poems in My Limerick Town refers to a very personal moment with a Limerick connection - be it family, personal friend, place, or occasion during his long career and colourful life as a respected poet.

These are my invitation to the reader of My Limerick Town to become a greater part of the poem and the poet. These are my invitations that you enjoy the read that bit more than one would normally - if you were just reading the poem on its own.

................. I hope it will be a source of pleasure, create pride, further curiosity and cause enjoyment to many Limerick people and their friends at home and overseas.

I have always maintained that Desmond O’ Grady’s poetry is accessible to everyone both the ordinary man in the street like myself, who just loves poetry for poetry’s sake and to the high-brow academic who looks much deeper into the technical working of the poem.

Here is a selection to suit everyone’s taste. I am proud to be Desmond’s friend and hope this book introduces him to many more new friends. I wish the book every success.

Barney Sheehan, Editor of My Limerick Town
Limerick 2009

• Language: English
• Publisher: Limerick Writers Centre
• Release date: Oct 2, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005770198

Desmond O'Grady

Desmond O'Grady was born in Limerick, Ireland, in 1935. He left during the 1950s to teach and write in Paris, Rome and America. While a Teaching Fellow at Harvard University, he took his M.A. and Ph.D. there in Celtic Languages and Literatures and Comparative Studies. He has also taught at the American University in Cairo and the University of Alexandria, Egypt. From the late 1950s to the mid-1970s, while teaching in Rome, he was a founder member of the European Community of Writers, European editor of The Transatlantic Review, and organised the Spoleto International Poetry Festival and played the Irish poet part in Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita.His publications number nineteen collections of his own poems, including The Road taken: Poems 1956-1996 and The wandering Celt and eleven collections of translated poetry, among them Trawling Tradition 1954-1994, Selected Poems of C.P. Cavafy, The Song of Songs, and in 2005, Kurdish Poems of Love and Liberty, in addition to prose memoirs of his literary acquaintances and friends. The publication of On My Way marks the 50th anniversary of his first published collection. Chords and Orchestrations. Desmond O’Grady is a member of Aosdána, and was the 2004 recipient of the Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship.'O'Grady's legacy can be found in his life's work as poet, teacher and translator. It is from these three wells of rigorous commitment that I, and many others, have drawn from and been nurtured by.'John Liddy

Book preview

This poetry book – My Limerick Town is the consequence of my reading all of Desmond O’Grady’s work but particularly my reading those three great publications of his life’s work: Trawling Tradition - Translations 1954 – 1994, as well as The Road Taken - Collected Poems 1956 – 2003 and The Wide World 2003 - all by Poetry Salzburg at the University of Salzburg, Austria.

James Hogg, who established the Salzburg University Press, was determined to find at least one minor poet who, in his opinion, would survive the test of time. His discovery seemed still a fata morgana, when in the summer of 1993 he met Desmond O’Grady in the home of Christoph Worndl in Neumark in Austria. James had heard of O’Grady, as he had read his Gododdin and his Seven Arab Odes with admiration.

Desmond gave a reading of his poem Tipperary and James Hogg was duly impressed – and even more so by the present of a number of Desmond’s small collections. O’Grady the Wandering Celt had lived much abroad over the years - including a winter with the Trappists on Caldey Island off the coast of Wales. Here he gained the friendship of Dom Eugene Boylan the author of This Tremendous Lover, who he had already encountered at the Cistercian Abbey in Ireland. His reading of T S Eliot and Ezra Pound led him to begin writing his own poems. Desmond resided and taught in language schools and universities in Paris, Italy, Egypt, Greece, Iran and the United States (where he acquired a Harvard Doctorate).

Desmond mentioned to James Hogg that he had a big collection of translations and versions awaiting publication and gave the assurance that there would be a large audience for his work. James Hogg was convinced and in 1994 published these in what he felt was an exciting and fascinating volume of 600 pages of verse in a very substantial edition Trawling Tradition. When this book appeared, it became embroiled in a rather heated debate in the Poets Voice. Here, Ewald Osers whose particular approach to translation is so different to O’Grady - whilst praising the volume in general, was harsh in his dissection of the renderings of Vladmir Holan. On the other hand, Josephine Balmer’s highly positive response in The Independent on Sunday on the 18th Dec was balm to James Hoggs aggrieved soul:

What happens at the corner, observes Desmond O’Grady of early Celtic literature, is as important as what happens at the centre. The same applies to Trawling Tradition which begins with Archilocus and Greece in the seventh century BC and ends with Nazim Hikmet in Turkey on June 1st 1963 - taking in not only O’Grady’s native Irish but also classical Chinese, medieval Arabic, Renaissance Armenian and modern Latvian. O’Grady is as well travelled, meeting Beckett in Paris and Pound in Italy. He translated Cafavy in Greece and Alexandria and the Mu ‘allaqaat in Iran. My purpose he says of the early Welsh epic The Gododdin was to make a classic masterpiece available to readers of poetry who may not have heard of it but might enjoy it. O’Grady in Josephine Balmer’s article nails his subjective colours to the mast from the start: These translations, versions, renderings, what you will, are all in my own likeness. The most important thing to be said about literary translation is that it must be done. Poetry translated accurately but lovingly or inaccurately but inspiringly is read by poetry readers who otherwise would never read it because unable to. Translation can stimulate a new poetry in a new language. In this translation is important culturally and socially. The making of poetry that a translation achieves is a separate evaluation in every generation.

Desmond stayed on in Neumarke until the Spring of 1996 and during this time James Hogg who had read most of his original poetry suggested a Collected.

It was clear to James Hogg that Desmond had a very individual voice. As a result of further discussions, The Road Taken: Poems 1956 – 1996 was conceived and published by the Salzburg University Press in 1996.

In the Summer of 1998 during one of those regular conspiratorial meetings in Hogg’s house in Seeham near Salzburg, the idea of an O’Grady Casebook evolved. The Wide World was subsequently published in 2003. The Editor was Wolfgang Gortschacher from whose interview in this very fine presentation I drew many of my Epigraphs. I am confident that My Limerick Town will create further student interest needed in these three great publications.

I was, I am hesitant to admit, like many of Desmond’s old school friends aware - yes - of Desmond O’Grady the Limerick poet - but was unaware of the extent, depth and importance of his work to contemporary poetry and of this great poet’s work and his contribution to the art of poetry over the past fifty years.

That he is, in the words of Seamus Heaney one of the senior figures in Irish Literary life - exemplary in the way he has committed himself over the decades to the vocation of poetry and has lived his life selflessly for the art is further emphasis on our necessity immediately in Limerick to respect this poet and his work. That this should be done in a greater singularly emphatic manner domestically is an immediate necessity. To create a Limerick domestic intellectual implement by which we can develop this relationship around the world to complement the poet’s association with his native city is represented in this publication by Revival Press.

I had suggested to my good friend Desmond, on one of his visits to Limerick, that he consider putting all his poems, which related to Limerick, in a specific volume – a special Limerick book. This would be for students of contemporary poetry, lovers of poetry generally and especially lovers of Limerick. Equally this book should be seen on the desks of all those people and associations who desire to elevate and promote Limerick and its beautiful city across the world for its historical, cultural and modern economic, social success and achievement.

Desmond was very enthusiastic about the idea, and thought the concept was legitimate and further, immediately agreed the task of collection. He then asked me if I would edit and publish the book. I said I would be delighted. I had not appreciated the serious academic matter I was dealing with or my restricted understanding of what had to be done. I was simply very happy and elated that he, a famous personal friend of mine since we were very young persons in Ballinacurra and the Jesuits, should agree to my suggestion and ask me to participate.

After all, we had only come back together again through the White House Poetry