‘A man innocently dabbles in words and finds that it is his life’
Dermot Bolger’s public conversations with major Irish writers have been an integral and popular part of Phizzfest since the festival began. This year he is joined on stage by the internationally renowned poet, Paul Durcan, to take part in a reading and rare public conversation.
Bolger takes as his starting point Patrick Kavanagh’s famous remark, ‘a man innocently dabbles in words and finds that it is his life’, to publicly discuss with Durcan how poetry has been the defining motif that has shaped his life since he first dabbled with words in his youth. This informal, intimate event will feature readings by both writers and a conversation opened up to the audience.
Born in 1944 in Dublin, Paul Durcan is one of Ireland’s greatest living poets. He many books include O Westport in the Light of Asia Minor, A Snail in My Prime and The Laughter of Mothers. He has been honoured with numerous awards including Irish American Cultural Institute Poetry Award, the 1990 Whitebread Prize for his collection Daddy, Daddy, a Cholmondeley Award for poetry in 2001 and he has held the Ireland Chair of Poetry.
Born in Dublin in 1959, Dermot Bolger is poet, playwright and novelist whose many novels include ‘The Journey Home’, ‘The Valparaiso Voyage’ and ‘The Family on Paradise Pier’. He devised the bestselling collaborative novels, Finbar’s Hotel and Ladies Night at Finbar’s Hotel, to which many of Ireland’s best known writers anonymously contributed chapters.
His latest collection of poems, ‘The Venice Suite: A Voyage Through Loss’, appeared last autumn, along with a novella, ‘The Fall of Ireland’. He regularly writes for most of Ireland’s national newspapers and in 2012 was named Newspaper Commentator of the Year.
