Louis de Paor

Louis de Paor (1961-) is one of Ireland's foremost poets in the Irish language. Born in Cork in 1961 and educated at Coláiste an Spioraid Naoimh, this strawberry blonde, mop-headed weaver of words edited the acclaimed Irish language journal, Innti, which had been founded in 1970 by Michael Davitt, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Liam Ó Muirthile and Gabriel Rosenstock. He was awarded a PhD in Modern Irish from the National University of Ireland in 1986 for his thesis on Máirtín Ó Cadhain. He emigrated to Australia in 1987, where he lectured in the University of Sydney, returning to Ireland in 1996. He is now the Director of the Centre for Irish Studies at the National University of Ireland, Galway. De Paor has worked alongside many of the giants of literature in the Irish language such as Seán Ó Tuama, with whom he edited a twentieth century anthology of poetry in Irish.

Poetry

Known as 'Louis de Poet' or "the foxy poet" by his great friend, John Spillane, Louis has published widely in Irish, his most recent collection was "Ag Greadadh Bas sa Reilig" - Clapping in the Cemetery.

Artistic collaborations

De Paor has collaborated with the Cork traditional and folk singer, John Spillane under the name Gaelic Hit Factory where they travel around giving concerts of poetry and song.

Further reading

* [http://www.coislife.ie/authors/otherauthors/louisdepaor2.htm Cois Life profile in English]
* [http://www.munsterlit.ie/Conwriters/LouisdePaor.htm Munter Lit profile]
* [http://members.dodo.com.au/~ghannah/depaor.html Black Pepper Biography]
* [http://www.kennysirishbookshop.ie/categories/irishwriters/depaorlouis.shtml Kenny's Bookshop]