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
County Wexford () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. Named after the town of Wexford, it was ba ...
on 28 December 1923. After obtaining a B.A. from the
National University of Ireland
The National University of Ireland (NUI) () is a federal university system of ''constituent universities'' (previously called '' constituent colleges'') and ''recognised colleges'' set up under the Irish Universities Act 1908, and signifi ...
, 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 Haughey][ (and briefly to Garret FitzGerald). He involved himself in initiatives such as Aosdána (an association for the benefit of artists and writers), the Irish Museum of Modern Art and the Heritage Council. He was a founding member of Aosdána, and was a member of its governing body, the Toscaireacht, for many years; he was elected Saoi (a distinction for exceptional artistic achievement) in 2003. He was also a member of the governing bodies of the Irish Museum of Modern Art and the National Gallery of Ireland, of which he was (for a time) Acting Chairman.
With Flann O'Brien, Patrick Kavanagh and Con Leventhal, Cronin celebrated the first Bloomsday in 1954. He contributed to many television programmes, including ''Flann O'Brien: Man of Parts'' (BBC) and ''Folio'' (RTÉ).
From 1966 to 1968 Cronin was a visiting lecturer at the University of Montana and from 1968 to 1970 he was a poet in residence at ]Drake University
Drake University is a private university in Des Moines, Iowa, United States. The University offers over 140 undergraduate and graduate programs, including professional programs in business, education, Legal education, law, and pharmacy. Drake U ...
. Cronin read a selection of his poems for th
Irish Poetry Reading Archive
in 2015. He had honorary doctorates from several institutions, including Dublin University, the National University of Ireland
The National University of Ireland (NUI) () is a federal university system of ''constituent universities'' (previously called '' constituent colleges'') and ''recognised colleges'' set up under the Irish Universities Act 1908, and signifi ...
and the University of Poznan.
Writing
Cronin began his literary career as a contributor to '' Envoy, A Review of Literature and Art''. He was editor of '' The Bell'' in the 1950s and literary editor of '' Time and Tide'' (London). He wrote a weekly column, "Viewpoint", in ''The Irish Times
''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It was launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is Ireland's leading n ...
'' from 1974 to 1980. Later he contributed a column on poetry to the '' Sunday Independent''.
His first collection of poems, called simply ''Poems'' (Cresset, London), was published in 1958. Several collections followed and his ''Collected Poems'' (New Island, Dublin) was published in 2004. ''The End of the Modern World'' (New Island, 2016), written over several decades, was his final publication.
Cronin's novel, ''The Life of Riley'', is a satire on bohemian life in Ireland in the mid-20th century, while his memoir ''Dead as Doornails'' addresses the same subject.
Cronin knew Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...
from when they did some work for the BBC during the 1950s and 1960s. Cronin gave a prefatory talk to Patrick Magee's reading of '' The Unnamable'' on the BBC Third Programme
The BBC Third Programme was a national radio station produced and broadcast from 1946 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 3. It first went on the air on 29 September 1946 and became one of the leading cultural and intellectual forces ...
. Beckett said: "Cronin delivered his discourse … It was all right, not very exciting".[ ''Samuel Beckett: The Last Modernist'' (1996) followed on from ''No Laughing Matter: The Life and Times of Flann O'Brien'' (1989).
]
Bibliography
Verse: main collections
* ''Poems'' (London: Cresset, 1958)
* ''Collected Poems, 1950–73'' (Dublin: New Writers Press, 1973)
* ''Reductionist Poem'' (Dublin: Raven Arts Press, 1980)
* ''RMS Titanic'' (Dublin: Raven Arts Press, 1981)
* ''41 Sonnet Poems'' (Dublin: Raven Arts Press, 1982)
* ''New and Selected Poems'' (Dublin: Raven Arts Press, and Manchester: Carcanet, 1982)
* ''Letters to an Englishman'' (Dublin: Raven Arts Press, 1985)
* ''The End of the Modern World'' (Dublin: Raven Arts Press, 1989 and 1998; reissued in a new expanded edition, Dublin: New Island Books, 2016)
* ''Relationships'' (Dublin: New Island Press, 1992)
* ''Minotaur'' (Dublin: New Island Books, 1999)
* ''Collected Poems'' (Dublin: New Island Press, 2004)
* ''The Fall'' (Dublin: New Island Books, 2010)
* ''Body and Soul'' (Dublin: New Island Books, 2014)
Novels
* ''The Life of Riley'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf 1964; reissued, Dublin: New Island 2012).
* ''Identity Papers'' (Dublin: Co-Op Books, 1980)
Literary Criticism and Commentary
*''Botteghe oscure : quaderno XII'', Roma, (De Luca editore, 1953, contributor)Peacock
Peafowl is a common name for two bird species of the genus '' Pavo'' and one species of the closely related genus '' Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae (the pheasants and their allies). Male peafowl are referred t ...
1974.
Memoirs
*''Dead as Doornails'' (Dublin: Dolmen Press, 1976; Oxford University Press, 1983; The Lilliput Press, November 1999
References
External links
AosdánaIrish Writers OnlineNew Island
* Video readings in th
Irish Poetry Reading ArchiveUCD Digital LibraryUniversity College Dublin
* Anthony Cronin interview with Des Lall
Clifden Arts Festival
2014, is available in th
Clifden Arts Festival Archive@UCD
which held i
University College Dublin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cronin, Anthony
1923 births
2016 deaths
People from Enniscorthy
Irish barristers
20th-century Irish poets
Irish male poets
Irish novelists
20th-century Irish male writers
Government advisors
Aosdána members
Saoithe
Sunday Independent (Ireland) people
Lawyers from County Wexford
Writers from County Wexford