Brian Coffey
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Brian Coffey (8 June 1905 – 14 April 1995) was an Irish poet and publisher. His work was informed by his
Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
, his background in science and philosophy, and his connection to French
surrealism Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...
. He was close to an intellectual European Catholic tradition and mainstream Irish Catholic culture. Two of his long poems, ''Advent'' (1975) and ''Death of Hektor'' (1979), were widely considered to be important works in the canon of Irish poetic
modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
. He also ran Advent Books, a small press, during the 1960s and 1970s.


Early life and work

Coffey 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 ...
in the suburb of
Dún Laoghaire Dún Laoghaire ( , ) is a suburban coastal town in County Dublin in Ireland. It is the administrative centre of the county of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown. The town was built up alongside a small existing settlement following 1816 legislation th ...
. He attended the Mount St Benedict boarding school in
Gorey Gorey () is a market town in north County Wexford, Ireland. It is bypassed by the main N11 road (Ireland), M11 Dublin to Wexford road. The town is also connected to the Gorey railway station, railway network along the same route. Local newspape ...
,
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 ...
from 1917 to 1919 and then
James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...
's old school, Clongowes Wood College, in Clane,
County Kildare County Kildare () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the Local gove ...
, from 1919 until 1922. In 1923, he went to France to study for a
Bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...
in Classical Studies at the Institution St Vincent, Senlis, Oise. His father, Denis J. Coffey, was a professor of
anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...
at the Catholic University of Ireland Medical School in Cecilia Street, who served as the first president following the creation of 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 ...
of
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) from 1908 to 1940. Coffey entered UCD in 1924 and earned advanced degrees in
mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
,
physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
and
chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...
. He also represented the college in boxing tournaments. While still at college, Coffey began writing poetry. He published his first poems in UCD's ''The National Student'' under the pseudonym Coeuvre. These poems, which have never been collected, showed the influence of French Symbolism and of TS Eliot. During this time Coffey met Denis Devlin and together they published a volume entitled ''Poems'' in 1930. Coffey and Devlin both also participated in college dramatics, taking roles in French plays.


Paris

In the early 1930s, Coffey moved to Paris, where he studied
Physical Chemistry Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic and microscopic phenomena in chemical systems in terms of the principles, practices, and concepts of physics such as motion, energy, force, time, thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, statistical mech ...
under Jean Baptiste Perrin, who had won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1926. He completed these studies in 1933, and his ''Three Poems'' was printed in Paris by Jeanette Monnier that same year, as was the poem card ''Yuki Hira'', which was admired by George William Russell and
William Butler Yeats William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th century in literature, 20th-century literature. He was ...
. He also became friendly with other Irish writers based in the city, including Thomas MacGreevy and
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 ...
. In his 1934 essay ''Recent Irish Poetry'', Beckett picked out Coffey and Devlin as forming 'the nucleus of a living poetic in Ireland'. He entered the
Institut Catholique de Paris The Institut catholique de Paris (, abbr. ICP), known in English as the Catholic University of Paris (and in Latin as ''Universitas catholica Parisiensis''), is a private university located in Paris, France. History: 1875–present The Institut ...
that year to work with the noted French philosopher Jacques Maritain, taking his licentiate examination in 1936. He then moved to London for a time and contributed reviews and a poem to Eliot's '' Criterion'' magazine. On trips home to Dublin, he contributed to programmes on literary topics on
RTÉ (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Irish public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, ...
radio and published poems in '' Ireland Today''. He returned to Paris in 1937 as an exchange student to work on his doctoral thesis on the idea of order in the work of
Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas ( ; ; – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest, the foremost Scholasticism, Scholastic thinker, as well as one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the W ...
. In 1938, Coffey's second volume of poetry, ''Third Person'', was published by George Reavey's Europa Press. He also contributed translations to the same publisher's ''Thorns of Thunder'' (1936), the first collection of Paul Éluard's work published in English. The poems of this period saw Coffey shake off his earlier influences and begin to find his own voice but, for a variety of reasons, ''Third Person'' was to be his last poetry publication for a quarter of a century.


St Louis

During the war, Coffey taught in schools in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
and
Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...
, leaving his young family in Dublin. After the war, he returned to Paris and completed his doctoral thesis. The family then moved so Coffey could take up a teaching post at the
Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
Saint Louis University Saint Louis University (SLU) is a private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1818 by Louis William Valentine DuBourg, it is the oldest university west of the Missi ...
. During this period, Coffey seems to have done very little, if any, creative writing as he focused mainly on philosophical work based on his thesis, publishing a number of essays in '' The Modern Schoolman''. By the early 1950s, Coffey had become uncomfortable for a number of reasons, including the nature of his work, his distance from Ireland and the pressures that inevitably came to bear on an academic who had previously associated with well-known left-wing writers in Paris. For these reasons, he began to look for a suitable opportunity to leave the United States and resigned, possibly on a matter of academic principle, in 1952.


Later life and work

In 1952, Coffey returned to live in London and, from 1973,
Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...
. He began again to publish his poetry and translations, mainly of
French poetry French poetry () is a category of French literature. It may include Francophone literature, Francophone poetry composed outside France and poetry written in other languages of France. French prosody and poetics The modern French language does not ...
. The first work in English to appear after this period of silence was '' Missouri Sequence'', apparently begun in St. Louis but first appearing in the ''University Review'' in 1962. This poem deals with the experience of exile, memories of the poet's dead parents and the premature birth of a child. It is written in a much more conventional syntax than most of Coffey's work and, thanks to this greater accessibility, is one of his most widely read works. Over the next decade or so, he published regularly in the '' University Review'' (later known as the ''Irish University Review''), a relationship that culminated in the 1975 special issue. This featured an introduction by Dr JCC Mays, a selection of translations from French, the satire ''Leo'' and '' Advent'', a meditation on death inspired by the death of the poet's son in a motorcycle accident. The poem is in seven sections, based, according to Coffey, in an interview with Parkman Howe on the
canonical hours In the practice of Christianity, canonical hours mark the divisions of the day in terms of Fixed prayer times#Christianity, fixed times of prayer at regular intervals. A book of hours, chiefly a breviary, normally contains a version of, or sel ...
of the
Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
. Another key work of this period was '' Death of Hektor'', which uses the myth of
Troy Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...
as a framework for a meditation on war and its victims. The trade editions of ''Advent'' and ''Death of Hektor'' were both published by the Menard Press. He also edited Devlin's ''Collected Poems'' (1964), first for a ''University Review'' Devlin special issue and later as a book from Dolmen Press. He also set up his own publishing enterprise, Advent Books, which published work by himself and by younger writers he wanted to support. He learned printmaking and produced a good deal of original work, including an interesting set of images based on the plays of his old friend Beckett. His interest in visual art also led to some experiments in
concrete poetry Concrete poetry is an arrangement of linguistic elements in which the typographical effect is more important in conveying meaning than verbal significance. It is sometimes referred to as visual poetry, a term that has now developed a distinct mea ...
, most notably his 1966 Advent book ''Monster: A Concrete Poem''. His work was championed by a number of younger Irish poets, especially Michael Smith and Trevor Joyce. These two published poetry, prose and translations by Coffey in their journal '' The Lace Curtain'', and his ''Selected Poems'' (1971), under their New Writers Press imprint.De Breffny, pg. 66 This book was instrumental in helping establish his reputation as a leading Irish exponent of modernist poetry. The appearance in 1991 of a major selection ''Poems and Versions 1929–1990'' and his translations ''Poems from Mallarmé'' helped confirm his status as one of the leading Irish modernists. He died at the age of 89 and was buried in Southampton, England.


Bibliography

Poetry *''Poems'' (1930), (with Denis Devlin) *''Three Poems'' (1933) *''Third Person'' (1938) *''Dice Thrown Never Will Annul Chance'' (1965). (trans. of Mallarmé's ''Coup de Dés'') *''Monster: A Concrete Poem'' (1966) John Parsons taught Brian printmaking, as lecturer in printmaking at St Martins School of Art. He also designed, printed and constructed the poem Monster, as he also did on many of the Advent Books. Brian and John were good friends. *''Selected Poems'' (1971), *'' Advent'' in ''Irish University Review'', Vol. 5., No. 1 (Spring 1975) *''The Big Laugh'' (1976) *''Death of Hektor'' (1979), ill. S. W. Hayter *''Topos and Other Poems'' (Bath: Mammon Press 1981) *''Death of Hektor: Poem'' (1982) *''Advent'' (1986) *''Chanterelles: Short Poems 1971–83'' (1985) *''Poems and Versions 1929–1990'', pref. by JCC Mays (1991), *''Poems from Mallarmé'' (1991) Philosophy and criticism *'The Philosophy of Science and the Scientific Attitude: I', in '' The Modern Schoolman'', 36 (1948), pp. 23–35 *'The Notion of Order According to St. Thomas Aquinas', in '' The Modern Schoolman'', 28, 1 (1949), pp. 1–18 *'Notes on Modern Cosmological Speculation', in '' The Modern Schoolman'', 29, 3 (1952), pp. 183–96 *'Memory's Murphy Maker', in ''Threshold'' vol. 17 (1962), p. 33 n Beckett*'Of Denis Devlin: Vestiges, Sentences, Presages', in ''Irish University Review'' 2, 10 (1965), pp. 3–18 *'A Note on Rat Island', in ''Irish University Review'', Vol. 3. no. 8 (1966), pp. 25–8 *'Denis Devlin: Poet of Distance', in Andrew Carpenter, ed., ''Place, Personality and the Irish Writer'' (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1977), 137–57 *'Extracts from "Concerning Making"’, in ''The Lace Curtain'', 6 (Autumnn 1978), pp.31–7 *"About Poetry", ''Dedalus Irish Poets: An Anthology'' d. JF Deane(Dublin: Dedalus Press 1992) .p. 253-54 As editor *Denis Devlin ''Poems'' ''University Review pecial Issue' (1963; Dolmen 1964) *Denis Devlin's ''The Heavenly Foreigner'' (1967)


See also

* Tomás Ó Cobhthaigh, poet, died 1474 * Aeneas Coffey, 1780–1852


References

Print *Coughlan, Patricia & Davis, Alex (editors): ''Modernism and Ireland: The Poetry of the 1930s'' (1995), *Howe, Parkman: "Brian Coffey: An Interview" in ''Éire Ireland: A Journal of Irish Studies'' 13:1 (1978): 113–123. *Keatinge, Benjamin & Woods, Aengus (editors): ''Other Edens: The Life and Work of Brian Coffey''. Irish Academic Press (2009). *Mays, Dr JCC: Introduction to ''Irish University Review'', Vol. 5., No. 1 (Spring 1975) (Coffey Special Issue). *Mills, B: ''Behind all Archetypes: on Brian Coffey'' (1995). *Moriarty, Donal: ''The Art of Brian Coffey''. (2000). *Wilson, James Matthew: ''Catholic modernism and the Irish "avant-garde" : the achievement of Brian Coffey, Denis Devlin, and Thomas MacGreevy'', Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2023, Online
The Poetry of Brian Coffey
– by Fred Beake


Brian Coffey papers
Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware. {{DEFAULTSORT:Coffey, Brian 1905 births 1995 deaths 20th-century Roman Catholics Irish modernist poets Irish Catholic poets Irish Roman Catholic writers People from Dún Laoghaire People educated at Clongowes Wood College Institut Catholique de Paris alumni Irish physical chemists 20th-century Irish poets 20th-century Irish male writers Writers from County Dublin 20th-century Irish chemists Scientists from County Dublin