Derek Mahon

Tom Walker (Trinity College Dublin)

Ed. by Anne Markey, Dublin City University, Ian Campbell Ross, Trinity College Dublin
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.4: Irish Writing and Culture, 400-present.
Vol. editors: Paul Delaney (Trinity College Dublin), Anne Markey (Dublin City University), Ian Campbell Ross (Trinity College Dublin), Sinéad Sturgeon (Queen's University Belfast)

Dates

Born 23 Nov 1941
Died 1 Oct 2020
Activity c. 1965-2020

Places

Born in Northern Ireland
Active in Northern Ireland; Ireland, Republic of (Eire)

Activities

Primary

Poet
Translator

Resources

Derek Mahon was born in Belfast on 23 November 1941. He has not written a memoir, but certain facts and something of the atmosphere of his childhood can be gleaned from poems, essays, interviews and Hugh Haughton’s study The Poetry of Derek Mahon (2007), written with the poet’s close co-operation. His parents had jobs in Belfast’s two key industries at that time, shipbuilding and linen (both now gone). His father, like his father before him, clocked on at the Harland and Wolff shipyard, rising from fitter to inspector of engines; his mother, before marriage, had been employed at the York Street Flax Spinning Company. “Blue-to-white collar”, the family lived in North Belfast off the Antrim Road in a semi-detached house …

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3338 words

Citation: Walker, Tom. "Derek Mahon". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 January 2013; last revised 29 January 2013. [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2878, accessed 25 November 2024.]

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