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Michael Longley

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Michael Longley

CBE
Longley reading his poetry in 2012
Longley reading his poetry in 2012
Born(1939-07-27)27 July 1939
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Died22 January 2025(2025-01-22) (aged 85)
EducationRoyal Belfast Academical Institution
Alma materTrinity College Dublin (TCD)
Notable awardsWhitbread Poetry Prize
T. S. Eliot Prize
Hawthornden Prize

Michael George Longley CBE (27 July 1939 – 22 January 2025) was a Northern Irish poet. In his later years Longley observed: "It's a mystery where poems come from. If I knew where poems came from I would go there ... When I write a poem I am moving into unknown territory and hoping to be surprised by some kind of redemptive eloquence to cast light into dark corners".[1] Following his death, the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, called Longley "a peerless poet".[2]

Life and career

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The elder of twin boys,[3] Michael Longley was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, to parents Richard and Connie (née Longworth) from London; he had an elder sister, Wendy.[4] Longley was educated at RBAI and subsequently read Classics at Trinity College Dublin, where he edited Icarus. He was the Ireland Professor of Poetry from 2007 to 2010, a cross-border academic post set up in 1998, previously held by John Montague, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill and Paul Durcan. He was succeeded in 2010 by Harry Clifton.[5] After teaching for several years in Dublin, London and Belfast, he was a director of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland 1970 to 1991.[6] He was part of the Belfast Group of poets that included Seamus Heaney with whom he became close friends, Derek Mahon and Paul Muldoon.[7]

His wife, Edna, is a critic on modern Irish and British poetry.[8] They had three children, Rebecca, Daniel and Sarah. An atheist, Longley described himself as a "sentimental" disbeliever.[9]

In 1994, Longley wrote his most famous poem, "Ceasefire". Composed in hope of a ceasefire between the IRA and loyalist forces, it was released only one day before one came about.[10] The poem adapts a famous scene from the Iliad, where King Priam begs for the body of his son back from the warrior Achilles.

Longley reading his poetry at the Corrymeela Peace Center in Ballycastle, Northern Ireland, July 2012

In October 2002, Longley opposed a decision by Queen's University Belfast to end the teaching of Classics and urged the university's senate to take action. Citing Northern Ireland's recent troubled past, he asked: "Who can bring peace to people who are not civilised?"[11][12]

On 14 January 2014, he participated in the BBC Radio 3 series The Essay – Letters to a Young Poet. Taking Rainer Maria Rilke's classic text Letters to a Young Poet as inspiration, leading poets wrote a letter to a protege.[13] Longley provided readings of his poetry for the Irish Poetry Reading Archive (UCD).

His twin brother, Peter, died in 2013/14. Longley dedicated the second half of The Stairwell (2014), his tenth collection, to him.[3]

Over 50 years, he spent much time in Carrigskeewaun, County Mayo, which inspired much of his poetry.[14]

Longley died of complications from hip surgery on 22 January 2025, at the age of 85.[2][15][7] He was buried in All Souls Church, Belfast, on 1 February 2025. During the service mourners, including Michael D. Higgins, were told that he had entered "people's consciousness".[16]

List of works

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Poetry: Main Collections

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  • 1969: No Continuing City, London: Macmillan: New York: Dufour Editions
  • 1973: An Exploded View, London: Victor Gollancz
  • 1976: Man Lying on a Wall, London: Victor Gollancz; New York: Transatlantic Arts (1977)
  • 1979: The Echo Gate, London: Seeker & Warburg; New York: Random House
  • 1991: Gorse Fires, London: Seeker & Warburg; Winston-Salem, USA: Wake Forest University Press
  • 1995: The Ghost Orchid, London: Jonathan Cape; Winston-Salem, USA: Wake Forest University Press (1996)
  • 2000: The Weather in Japan, London: Jonathan Cape; Winston-Salem, USA: Wake Forest University Press
  • 2004: Snow Water, London: Jonathan Cape; Winston-Salem, USA: Wake Forest University Press
  • 2011: A Hundred Doors, London: Jonathan Cape; Winston-Salem, USA: Wake Forest University Press
  • 2014: The Stairwell, London: Jonathan Cape; Winston-Salem, USA: Wake Forest University Press
  • 2017: Angel Hill, London: Jonathan Cape; Winston-Salem, USA: Wake Forest University Press
  • 2020: The Candlelight Master, London: Jonathan Cape; Winston-Salem, USA: Wake Forest University Press
  • 2022: The Slain Birds, London: Jonathan Cape; Winston-Salem, USA: Wake Forest University Press

Poetry: Selected Editions

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  • 1981: Selected Poems 1963–1980, Winston-Salem, USA: Wake Forest University Press
  • 1985: Poems 1963–1983, Edinburgh: Salamander Press; Dublin: Gallery Press; Winston-Salem, USA: Wake Forest University Press (1987)
  • 1998: Selected Poems, London: Jonathan Cape; Winston-Salem, USA: Wake Forest University Press (1999)
  • 2006: Collected Poems, London: Jonathan Cape; Winston-Salem, USA: Wake Forest University Press (2007)
  • 2024: Ash Keys: New Selected Poems, London: Jonathan Cape; Winston-Salem, USA: Wake Forest University Press

Limited Editions and Booklets (poetry and prose)

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  • 1965: Ten Poems, Belfast: Festival Publications
  • 1968: Secret Marriages, Manchester: Phoenix Press
  • 1972: Lares, Woodford Green, London: Poet & Printer
  • 1975: Fishing in the Sky: Love Poems, London: Poet & Printer
  • 1981: Patchwork, Dublin: The Gallery Press
  • 1993: Baucis and Philemon: After Ovid, London: Poet & Printer
  • 1994: Birds and Flowers: Poems, Edinburgh: Morning Star
  • 1994: Tuppeny Stung: Autobiographical Chapters, Belfast: Lagan Press
  • 1997: Ship of the Wind, Dublin: Poetry Ireland
  • 1998: Broken Dishes, Newry, Northern Ireland: Abbey Press
  • 1999: Out of the Cold, Newry, Northern Ireland: Abbey Press
  • 2003: Cenotaph of Snow: Sixty Poems About War, London: Enitharmon Press
  • 2005: The Rope-Makers, London: Enitharmon Press
  • 2008: A Jovial Hullabaloo, London: Enitharmon Press
  • 2015: One Wide Expanse, Dublin: University College Dublin Press
  • 2015: Sea Asters, Rochdale, UK: Andrew J Moorhouse, Fine Press Poetry
  • 2016: The Dipper's Range, Rochdale, UK: Andrew J Moorhouse, Fine Press Poetry
  • 2016: Twelve Poems, Thame, Oxford: Clutag Press
  • 2017: Songs for Dead Children: Poetry in Violent Times, London: Faber and Faber
  • 2017: Sidelines: Selected Prose, London: Enitharmon Press
  • 2019: Ghetto, Rochdale, UK: Andrew J Moorhouse, Fine Press Poetry
  • 2020: Homer's Octopus, Rochdale, UK: Andrew J Moorhouse, Fine Press Poetry
  • 2022: Metamorphoses, Rochdale, UK: Andrew J Moorhouse, Fine Press Poetry
  • 2022: Canticle, Rochdale, UK: Andrew J Moorhouse, Fine Press Poetry
  • 2024: Birds & Flowers, Rochdale, UK: Andrew J Moorhouse, Fine Press Poetry

North American editions of Longley's work are published by Wake Forest University Press.

Awards and Honours

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Gorse Fires (1991) won the Whitbread Poetry Prize. The Weather in Japan (2000) won the T. S. Eliot Prize and the Hawthornden Prize.[17] It also brought him the inaugural Yakamochi Medal in 2018.[18] He received honorary doctorates from Queen's (1995) and Trinity (1999) and was the 2001 recipient of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry.[19] Longley was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours.[20]

Longley won a 2011 London Awards for Art and Performance. His collection A Hundred Doors won the Poetry Now Award in September 2012.[21]

His 2014 collection, The Stairwell, won the 2015 International Griffin Poetry Prize.[22] In 2015, he received the Ulster Tatler Lifetime Achievement Award.[23] He was awarded the PEN Pinter Prize in 2017. The Chair of the judges, Don Paterson, said: "For decades now his effortlessly lyric and fluent poetry has been wholly suffused with the qualities of humanity, humility and compassion, never shying away from the moral complexity that comes from seeing both sides of an argument."[24]

In 2015 Longley was elected a Freeman of the City of Belfast.[25] In 2018, he was made an honorary fellow of Trinity.[26] He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts.[27]

In autumn 2021, the School of English at Queen's University opened the Longley Room to honour the poet and his wife. The university also established the Michael Longley scholarship fund, offering two scholarships each year to poetry students of particular merit.[28]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Michael Longley, 'Michael Longley - Where Poems Come From' (00:02 and 02:10). BBC Northern Ireland, 11 February 2024. Retrieved 28 January 2025
  2. ^ a b "Poet Michael Longley dies aged 85". BBC News. 23 January 2025. Retrieved 23 January 2025.
  3. ^ a b Kellaway, Kate (3 August 2014). "The Stairwell review – Michael Longley's shortcuts to the heart". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 March 2022.
  4. ^ 'Michael Longley obituary: Award-winning poet of emotional and intellectual depth'. The Irish Times, 1 February 2025. Retrieved 3 February 2025
  5. ^ "Longley new professor of poetry". bbc.co.uk. 7 September 2007. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  6. ^ 'Obituary: Michael Longley CBE, Poet (27 July 1939 - 22 January 2025)'. Arts Council of Northern Ireland, 23 January 2025. Retrieved 23 January 2025
  7. ^ a b "Michael Longley obituary: acclaimed Northern Irish poet". The Times. 24 January 2025. Retrieved 26 January 2025.
  8. ^ Wake Forest University Press Archived 10 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ O'Brien, Sean (9 April 2011). "A Hundred Doors by Michael Longley – review | Michael Longley's reverence for the living and the dead is as evident as ever". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  10. ^ Alden, Maureen (2020). Torrance, Isabelle; O'Rourke, Donncha (eds.). Classics and Irish Politics, 1916-2016. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 308. Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  11. ^ Michael Allen, 'Term Time: Decision is all Greek to me'. Belfast Telegraph, 29 October 2002. Retrieved 23 January 2025
  12. ^ Monika Unsworth, 'Epic battle to save classical studies at Queen's'. The Irish Times, 29 August 2002. Retrieved 23 January 2025
  13. ^ "The Essay – Letters to a Young Poet", bbc.co.uk, 2014. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  14. ^ Viney, Michael (17 July 2009). "An imagination nourished by the landscape of the west". www.irishtimes.com. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  15. ^ "Michael Longley, Northern Irish poet with interests from nature and classics to the Troubles". The Telegraph. 23 January 2025. Retrieved 23 January 2025.
  16. ^ 'Michael Longley touched souls with poetry, funeral hears'. RTÉ, 1 February 2025. Retrieved 3 February 2025
  17. ^ "Michael Longley". Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation. 16 January 2018. Retrieved 26 July 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  18. ^ "Ist Yakamochi Medal Award Decision". www.koshibun.jp. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  19. ^ Kennedy, Maev (24 April 2001). "Medal crowns Belfast poet's renaissance". www.theguardian.com. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  20. ^ "No. 59446". The London Gazette (Supplement). 12 June 2010. p. 7.
  21. ^ Wallace, Arminta (8 September 2012). "Michael Longley wins €5,000 poetry prize". The Irish Times.
  22. ^ Doyle, Martin (5 June 2015). "Michael Longley wins Griffin International Poetry Prize". www.irishtimes.com. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  23. ^ "Poet Michael Longley's lifetime achievement gong at Ulster Tatler awards". Belfast Telegraph. 18 September 2015. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  24. ^ Kean, Danuta (1 June 2017). "Michael Longley wins PEN Pinter Prize for unflinching unswerving poetry". The Guardian.
  25. ^ Publisher's note Angel Hill.
  26. ^ "TRINITY MONDAY 2018 - FELLOWS AND SCHOLARS". www.tcd.ie. Trinity College Dublin. 9 April 2018. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
  27. ^ 'Michael Longley HRHA 1939 – 2025'. Royal Hibernian Academy, undated. Retrieved 3 February 2025
  28. ^ Patricia Craig, 'Michael Longley obituary'. The Guardian, 23 January 2025. Retrieved 3 February 2025

Further reading

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  • Allen, Michael, ed. Options: The Poetry of Michael Longley, Éire-Ireland 10.4 (1975): pp. 129–35.
  • Allen Randolph, Jody. "Michael Longley, February 2010". Close to the Next Moment: Interviews from a Changing Ireland. Manchester: Carcanet, 2010.
  • Allen Randolph, Jody and Douglas Archibald, eds. Special Issue on Michael Longley. Colby Quarterly 39.3 (September 2003).
  • Brearton, Fran. Reading Michael Longley. Bloodaxe, 2006.
  • Clyde, Tom, ed. Special Issue on Michael Longley. Honest Ulsterman 110 (Summer 2001).
  • Peacock, Alan J. and Kathleen Devine, eds. The Poetry of Michael Longley: Ulster Editions and Monographs 10. Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, England: Colin Smythe, 2000.
  • Robertson, Robin, ed. Love Poet, Carpenter: Michael Longley at Seventy. London: Enitharmon Press, 2009.
  • Russell, Richard Rankin. Poetry and Peace: Michael Longley, Seamus Heaney, and Northern Ireland. South Bend, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2010.
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