''Cyphers'' is a literary magazine publishing poetry and criticism from Ireland and abroad. It was established in 1975 by

Leland Bardwell Constance Olive Leland Bardwell (25 February 1922 – 28 June 2016) was an Irish poet, novelist, and playwright. She was part of the literary scene in London and later Dublin, where she was an editor of literary magazines ''Hibernia'' and '' Cyp ...

(1922–2016),

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 ...

(1927–2012),

Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin (; born 1942) is an Irish poet and academic. She was the Ireland Professor of Poetry (2016–19). Biography Ní Chuilleanáin was born in Cork in 1942, the daughter of Eilís Dillon and Professor Cormac Ó Cuillean� ...

, and

Macdara Woods Macdara Woods (1942 – 15 June 2018) was an Irish poet. Biography Woods was born in Dublin, where he attended Gonzaga College and then University College Dublin. He married the poet Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin. They had one son, Niall, a musician ...

(1942–2018). Of the four, all but Ní Chuilleanáin (born 1942) are deceased. Bardwell retired in 2012; Woods continued working until the final weeks of his life — even reading submissions while in his hospital bed. The Irish Arts Council has funded ''Cyphers'' entirely since its third issue (it provided half the required funding for the first two issues; six

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s of the remainder came from the widow of

Patrick Kavanagh Patrick Kavanagh (21 October 1904 – 30 November 1967) was an Irish poet and novelist. His best-known works include the novel ''Tarry Flynn'', and the poems "On Raglan Road" and "The Great Hunger". He is known for his accounts of Irish life th ...

). ''Cyphers'' started publishing following '' The Dublin Magazine''s closure and as ''

The Lace Curtain ''The Lace Curtain'' was an occasional literary magazine founded and edited by Michael Smith and Trevor Joyce under their New Writers Press imprint. Both press and journal were dedicated to expanding the horizons of Irish poetry by rediscover ...

''s penultimate issue was published. Titles considered by the editors for their new publication included ''Landrail'', ''The Blackbird'', and ''Waterhouse Clock''. The husband of Ruth Brandt — who designed the lettering on the masthead of early editions — decided it. He asked the name of Ní Chuilleanáin's and Woods's black cat. She was called Cypher — a name borrowed from several of Woods poems — based on the

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

word for "zero" and also referring to a

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. One of the co-founders commented that though the magazine was commonly thought to intend to support new writers, this was not specifically the case at all, but that it had helped "several emergences" anyway.

References

External links

*{{Official website, https://www.cyphers.ie/ 1975 establishments in Ireland Poetry magazines published in Ireland Magazines established in 1975

See also

References

External links