President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins has led tributes to the Belfast-born poet and academic Gerald Dawe, who has died at the age of 72.
The acclaimed poet died at his home in Dún Laoghaire after a long illness, his death notice read.
Gerald Dawe was professor of English and fellow of Trinity College Dublin until his retirement in 2017. He was also the inaugural director of the Oscar Wilde Centre for Irish Writing at Trinty.
He studied English at Ulster University before later becoming a lecturer at Galway University, where he published his debut collection Sheltering Places in 1978.
Gerry Dawe 1972-2024
— The Gallery Press (@TheGalleryPress) May 29, 2024
Forty years since we met and Gallery published the first of nine books. I'll miss his honesty, his seriousness and his laughter.
To his beloved Dorothea, to Olwen and Iarla, we send heartfelt condolences.
Peter Fallon pic.twitter.com/tpH6AffZq5
His second collection, The Lundys Letter (1985), published by The Gallery Press, was awarded the Macaulay Fellowship in Literature.
Subsequent poetry collections include Sunday School (1991), Heart of Hearts (1995), The Morning Train (1999), Lake Geneva (2003), Points West (2008), Selected Poems (2012), Mickey Finn's Air (2014), The Last Peacock (2019) and Another Time: Poems 1978-2023, all published by The Gallery Press.
In October 2023 he was announced as the recipient of the 2024 Lawrence O'Shaughnessy Poetry Award.
Everyone in Poetry Ireland is devastated to learn of the sudden death of Gerald Dawe. Our sincere condolences to his wife Dorothea, son Iarla and daughter Olwen, a former board member at Poetry Ireland.All of us in Poetry Ireland admired his art, energy and clear thinking. pic.twitter.com/87RzKScr4J
— Poetry Ireland (@poetryireland) May 29, 2024
He also published several prose collections including Of War and War's Alarms (2015), The Wrong Country (2018) and the Northern Chronicles trilogy (2017-2021).
A very fine poet himself, Gerald Dawe always took an interest in others. It meant a lot to be included in this Blackstaff anthology back in 1991. I was the second youngest and I'll always be grateful to him for his encouragement and good humour. pic.twitter.com/LR6wrUCWQy
— John Kelly tweets (@johnkellytweets) May 30, 2024
Dawe was a frequent contributor to a number of RTÉ programmes, including The Lyric Feature and Sunday Miscellany.
Director of the Arts Council, Maureen Kennelly said in a statement; "The Arts Council deeply regrets the death of poet Gerald Dawe. We have lost one of Ireland's foremost poets, renowned for his vivid, clarifying and musical poems. Gerald was also one of the country’s wisest and most eloquent essayists and a wonderfully encouraging force to younger writers, especially through his role as Director of the Oscar Wilde Centre for Irish Writing at Trinity College Dublin. We send our deepest sympathies to his family and wide circle of friends and admirers."
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President Of Ireland Michael D. Higgins added: "Gerry Dawe wrote out of a unique experience that gave him a special place and memory in contemporary poetry. His work embraced the most important themes of life and the heart, out of a red-bricked context of Belfast. In the collections, the most sensitive of themes are undertaken with a meticulous care of crafting that seemed to me a recall of all the diverse skills of the shipyard. The standard he set for himself was so high that nothing is redundant or irrelevant in the lines, something special is being recreated or is the basis of a response.
"His passing represents a very significant and special loss to Irish poetry and to all those who love poems. About to receive an international award in the United States, it would have been a further recognition to the appreciation that is widely held for his work".
Gerald Dawe is survived by his wife Dorothea, daughter Olwen and stepson Iarla.
