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Aosdána
Aosdána ( , ; from , 'people of the arts') is an Irish association or academy of artists, each of whom must have produced a distinguished body of work of genuine originality. It was created in 1981 by the country's Arts Council on the initiative of a group of writers with support from the Taoiseach. Membership, which is by invitation from current members, is limited to 250 individuals; before 2005 it was limited to 200. Its steering body is a committee of 10, called the Toscaireacht. Formation Aosdána was originally set up by the Arts Council, on the suggestion of writer Anthony Cronin, with support from the Taoiseach, Charles Haughey, well known for his support for the Arts, although Fintan O'Toole has argued that this also served to deflect criticism of Haughey's political actions. The first 89 members were chosen by the Arts Council. Membership The process of induction relies entirely on members proposing new members, with a system of selective voting used to filter app ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edna O'Brien
Josephine Edna O'Brien (15 December 1930 – 27 July 2024) was an Irish novelist, memoirist, playwright, poet and short-story writer. O'Brien's works often revolve around the inner feelings of women and their problems relating to men and society as a whole. Her first novel, '' The Country Girls'' (1960), has been credited with breaking silence on sexual matters and social issues during a repressive period in Ireland after the Second World War. The book was banned and denounced from the pulpit. Many of her novels were translated into French. Her memoir, '' Country Girl'', was published in 2012, and her last novel, '' Girl'', was published in 2019. Many of her novels were based in Ireland, especially in County Clare, but ''Girl'' was a fictional account of a victim of the 2014 Chibok kidnapping in Nigeria. In 2015, she was elected to Aosdána by her fellow artists and honoured with the title Saoi. She was the recipient of many other awards and honours, winning the Irish PEN ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brian Friel
Brian Patrick Friel (c. 9 January 1929 – 2 October 2015) was an Irish dramatist, short story writer and founder of the Field Day Theatre Company. He had been considered one of the greatest living English-language dramatists. (subscription required). He has been likened to an "Irish Anton Chekhov, Chekhov" and described as "the universally accented voice of Ireland". His plays have been compared favourably to those of contemporaries such as Samuel Beckett, Arthur Miller, Harold Pinter and Tennessee Williams. Recognised for early works such as ''Philadelphia, Here I Come!'' and ''Faith Healer'', Friel had 24 plays published in a career of more than a half-century. He was elected to the honorary position of Saoi of Aosdána. His plays were commonly produced on Broadway in New York City throughout this time, as well as in Ireland and the UK. In 1980 Friel co-founded Field Day Theatre Company and his play ''Translations (play), Translations'' was the company's first production. With ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seamus Heaney
Seamus Justin Heaney (13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish Irish poetry, poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Among his best-known works is ''Death of a Naturalist'' (1966), his first major published volume. American poet Robert Lowell described him as "the most important Irish poet since W. B. Yeats, Yeats", and many others, including the academic John Sutherland (author), John Sutherland, have said that he was "the greatest poet of our age". Robert Pinsky has stated that "with his wonderful gift of eye and ear Heaney has the gift of the story-teller." Upon his death in 2013, ''The Independent'' described him as "probably the best-known poet in the world". Heaney was born in the townland of Tamniaran between Castledawson and Toomebridge, Northern Ireland. His family moved to nearby Bellaghy when he was a boy. He became a lecturer at St. Joseph's College in Belfast in the early 1960s, after attending Queen's University B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roger Doyle
Roger Doyle (born 17 July 1949) is an Irish composer best known for his electro-acoustic work, for which he was made a Saoi of Aosdána, and for his piano music for theatre. Education Born in Malahide, County Dublin, Doyle studied piano from the age of nine. After leaving school he attended the Royal Irish Academy of Music for three years, studying composing, during which time he was awarded two composition scholarships. He also studied at the Institute of Sonology at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands and the Finnish Radio Experimental Music Studio on scholarships. Early work As a performer Doyle began as a drummer with the groups Supply Demand and Curve and Jazz Therapy, playing free improvisatory and fusion music. He released his first LP, ''Oizzo No'', in 1975, and his second, ''Thalia'', in 1978 on CBS Classics. ''Rapid Eye Movements'' (1981) was his third LP, and his attempt at a "masterpiece before the age of thirty". Electro-acoustic and other work Doyle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthony Cronin
Anthony Gerard Richard Cronin (28 December 1923 – 27 December 2016) was an Irish poet, arts activist, biographer, commentator, critic, editor and barrister. Early life and family Cronin was born in Enniscorthy, County Wexford on 28 December 1923. After obtaining a B.A. from the National University of Ireland, he entered the King's Inns and was later called to the Bar. Cronin was married to Thérèse Campbell, from whom he separated in the mid-1980s. She died in 1999. They had two daughters, Iseult and Sarah; Iseult was killed in a road accident in Spain. In his later years Cronin suffered from failing health, which prevented him from travelling abroad, thus limiting his dealings to local matters. He died on 27 December 2016, one day short of his 93rd birthday, having married a second wife, the writer Anne Haverty; his daughter Sarah also survived him. Activism Cronin was known as an arts activist as well as a writer. He was Cultural Adviser to the Taoiseach Charles Haug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Camille Souter
Camille Souter (born Betty Pamela Holmes; 22 October 1929 – 3 March 2023) was a British-born Irish abstract and landscape artist. She lived and worked on Achill Island and was a Saoi of Aosdána. Early life Souter was born Betty Pamela Holmes in Northampton, England, on 22 October 1929, but she was raised in Ireland. Souter received a general education at Glengara Park School in Dun Laoghaire. She originally trained as a nurse at Guy's Hospital in London. Souter began painting, after attending art classes as part of occupational therapy whilst she recovered from tuberculosis on the Isle of Wight. Although largely self-taught, Souter took up sculpture in 1950 as her convalescence continued in Dublin. She was trained there by Yann Renard-Goulet. Souter returned to London and completed her nursing studies in 1952, before abandoning the profession in favour of painting. In 1953 she began to explore the medium of paint after visiting Italy. Early patrons of her work included ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Morrison (documentary Maker)
George Edward MorrisonPaul Levy, ‘FitzGibbon, Theodora (1916–1991)’, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 201/ref> (born 3 November 1922) is an Irish director of film documentaries, documentary films. His works include 1959 documentary ''Mise Éire'' and ''Saoirse?''. Early life Morrison was born in Tramore, County Waterford on 3 November 1922. His mother was an actress at Dublin's Gate Theatre, while his father worked as a neurological anaesthetist. Morrison studied medicine at Trinity College, Dublin but dropped out in order to pursue his ambition to work in films. Career Early in his career he assisted director Hilton Edwards in two of the latter's films: ''From Time to Time'' and ''Hamlet of Elsinore''. For ''Mise Éire'', Morrison painstakingly assembled historical footage of the events surrounding the 1916 Rising from archives across Europe. The result, released by Gael Linn to great acclaim at the 1959 Cork F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jimmy Murphy (playwright)
Jimmy Murphy is an Ireland, Irish playwright living in Dublin. He is a former writer in residence at NUI Maynooth (2000–01), a member of the Abbey Theatre’s Honorary Advisory Council, a recipient of three Bursaries in literature from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíona and was elected a member of Aosdána in 2004 and was elected to its governing body An Toscaireacht, in 2025. Murphy was born to Irish parents in Salford, Greater Manchester, Salford, Lancashire on 30 September 1962. When he was six, his family returned to Dublin, settling in the South inner-city district of Islandbridge. He first went to school in nearby Inchicore, attending the Oblate Fathers’ primary school there, then moved to Ballyfermot, a working-class heartland of suburban Dublin, in his teens. There, he attended secondary school at St. John's De La Salle College. After failing the Irish Intermediate Certificate he left school to pursue an apprenticeship in painting and decorating, taking his Juni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patrick Scott (artist)
Patrick Scott (24 January 1921 – 14 February 2014) was an Irish artist. Patrick Scott was born in Kilbrittain, County Cork, in 1921, and had his first exhibition in 1944, but trained as an architect and did not become a full-time artist until 1960. He worked for fifteen years for the Irish architect Michael Scott, assisting, for example, in the design of Busáras, the central bus station in Dublin. He was also responsible for the black and orange livery of Irish intercity trains. Scott was perhaps best known for his ''gold paintings'', abstracts incorporating geometrical forms in gold leaf against a pale tempura background. He also produced tapestries and carpets. His paintings are in several important collections including the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He won the Guggenheim Award in 1960, represented Ireland in the 1960 Venice Biennale, the Douglas Hyde Gallery held a major retrospective of his work in 1981 and the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin held a major sur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Murphy (playwright)
Tom Murphy (23 February 1935 – 15 May 2018) was an Irish dramatist who worked closely with the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and with Druid Theatre, Galway. He was born in County Galway, Ireland and later lived in Dublin. Murphy's first successful play, ''A Whistle in the Dark'', was performed at the Theatre Royal Stratford East in London in 1961 and caused considerable controversy both there and in Dublin when it was later given its Irish premiere at the Abbey having initially been rejected by its artistic director. Life Murphy was born in Tuam, County Galway, the youngest of ten children. His elder siblings gradually emigrated to Birmingham until he was left alone with his mother. He played at centre half back for the Galway Vocational Schools Gaelic football team in the early 1950s. He attended Archbishop McHale College in Tuam, was an apprentice at the Tuam Sugar Factory and later became a metalwork teacher at Archbishop McHale College. He began writing in the late 1950s: "I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pearse Hutchinson
Pearse Hutchinson (16 February 1927 – 14 January 2012) was an Irish poet, broadcaster and translator. Childhood and education Hutchinson was born in Glasgow. His father, Harry Hutchinson, a Scottish printer whose own father had left Dublin to find work in Scotland, was Sinn Féin treasurer in Glasgow and was interned in Frongoch in 1919–21. His mother, Cathleen Sara, was born in Cowcaddens, Glasgow, of emigrant parents from County Donegal. She was a friend of Constance Markievicz. In response to a letter from Cathleen, Éamon de Valera found work in Dublin for Harry as a clerk in the Labour Exchange, and later he held a post in the Stationery Office. Pearse was five years old when the family moved to Dublin, and was the last to be enrolled in St. Enda's School before it closed. He then went to school at the Christian Brothers, Synge Street where he learnt Irish and Latin. Hutchinson was known to write equally well in both Irish and English. One of his close friends there w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
President Of Ireland
The president of Ireland () is the head of state of Republic of Ireland, Ireland and the supreme commander of the Defence Forces (Ireland), Irish Defence Forces. The presidency is a predominantly figurehead, ceremonial institution, serving as the representative of the Irish state both at home and abroad. Nevertheless, the office of president is endowed with certain reserve powers which have constitutional importance. When invoking these powers, the president acts as the guardian of the Constitution of Ireland, Irish constitution. This representative and moderating role is in keeping with the president's solemn oath to "...maintain the Constitution of Ireland and uphold its laws..", to "...fulfil my duties faithfully and conscientiously in accordance with the Constitution and the law...", and to "...dedicate my abilities to the service and welfare of the people of Ireland." The president's official residence and principal workplace is in Phoenix Park, Dublin. Presidents hold o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
