Anthony Glavin (7 August 1945 – 14 November 2006) was an Irish

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and professor of music at the

Royal Irish Academy of Music Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family or royalty Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Roy ...

Biography

Anthony Glavin was born in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

to Kathleen and James J. Glavin. His father fought in the

War of Independence Wars of national liberation, also called wars of independence or wars of liberation, are conflicts fought by nations to gain independence. The term is used in conjunction with wars against foreign powers (or at least those perceived as foreign) ...

and later went on to work for the

Irish Sugar Company Greencore Group plc is a food company in Ireland. It was established by the Irish government in 1991, when Irish Sugar was privatised, but today Greencore's products are mainly convenience foods, not only in Ireland but also in the United Kingd ...

until he retired in 1971. Glavin was educated at the

O'Connell School The O’Connell School is a secondary and primary school for boys located on North Richmond Street in Dublin, Ireland. The school, named in honour of the leader of Catholic Emancipation, Daniel O’Connell, has the distinction of being the olde ...

in Dublin where he excelled at

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

and

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

, eventually studying at the

where

Dina Copeman DINA may refer to: * Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA), the Chilean secret police under the Pinochet regime * DINA S.A., a Mexican truck and bus manufacturer See also * Dina (disambiguation) * * DINO Dino may refer to: Prefix * dino-, ...

was his tutor. After leaving school, Glavin studied at

University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...

(UCD) and

Trinity College, Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Univ ...

. In 1963, during his first year at UCD, he was approached by the Rathmines and Rathgar Musical Society and played Jack Point in The Gaiety's production of ''

The Yeomen of the Guard ''The Yeomen of the Guard; or, The Merryman and His Maid'', is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 3 October 1888 and ran for 423 performances. This was the eleventh ...

''. He took over from Harry Crawley as auditor of the Literary and Historical Society. During this period he was also active in the UCD drama society, Dramsoc. Glavin received his licentiate from the Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM) and joined the staff there in 1969. During the 1980s he served on the RIAM Board of Governors. Many of his students went on to become distinguished singers, teachers and musicians such as

Peter Tuite Peter Tuite is a classical concert pianist. Early studies Born in Dublin, Tuite was first educated at Belvedere College SJ. He studied under Anthony Glavin at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and later at the Peabody Institute in the United S ...

, who won the European Musician of the Year Award; also Sarah, John and Michelle Picardo, Niamh McGarry and Robin Tritschler. He died at the Mater Hospital, Dublin, after many years of suffering with emphysema.See edited obituary by Mark Granier: http://markgranier.blogspot.de/2006/12/anthony-glavin-1945-2006.html On the day of his funeral the RIAM held a half-day of mourning and a one-minute silence.

Poetry

Glavin began publishing poetry and reviews while at university. His poetry appeared in numerous newspapers and journals and was first anthologised in ''Irish Poets 1924–74'', edited by David Marcus. Anthony received the

Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award The Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award is an Irish poetry award for a collection of poems by an author who has not previously been published in collected form. It is confined to poets born on the island of Ireland, or who have Irish nationality, or are ...

in 1987 and his poetry collection, ''The Wrong Side of the Alps'', was published by '' The Gallery Press'' in 1989. The following year he received an

Arts Council An arts council is a government or private non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the arts; mainly by funding local artists, awarding prizes, and organizing arts events. They often operate at arms-length from the government to prevent pol ...

bursary and his collection was shortlisted for the

Irish Book Awards The Irish Book Awards are Irish literary awards given annually to books and authors in various categories. It is the only literary award supported by all-Irish bookstores. The primary sponsor is An Post, the state owned postal service in Ireland ...

. Reviewing ''The Wrong Side of the Alps'' for ''Books Ireland'', Fred Johnston wrote that "it is a fine, meticulous book" and "there is, to quote Glavin himself, 'a weightless perfection' about most of these poems." Glavin's work of half a lifetime was the ambitious sequence of four-line poems, originally titled ''Living In Hiroshima''. Anthony was haunted by the fact that his birthdate, 7 August 1945 (a Bank Holiday in Ireland), was just one day after

Little Boy Little Boy was a type of atomic bomb created by the Manhattan Project during World War II. The name is also often used to describe the specific bomb (L-11) used in the bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress ...

was dropped on

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui has b ...

; that his coming into the world coincided with an event that abruptly altered the world's "historical velocity." As the title of the first poem in the sequence (taken from a ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' article in 1985) puts it: "Everybody lives in Hiroshima." When Anthony received his Arts Council bursary in 1990, his intention was to travel to

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, to visit Hiroshima and

Nagasaki , officially , is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Founded by the Portuguese, the port of Portuguese_Nagasaki, Nagasaki became the sole Nanban trade, port used for tr ...

and supplement his extensive research with actual experience.

Writings

*''The Wrong Side of the Alps'' (Dublin: The Gallery Press, 1989)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Glavin, Anthony 1945 births 2006 deaths 20th-century Irish classical musicians 20th-century Irish poets Alumni of the Royal Irish Academy of Music Auditors of the Literary and Historical Society (University College Dublin) Irish male poets Musicians from County Dublin Scholars and academics from County Dublin People educated at O'Connell School