Dennis O'Driscoll

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Dennis O'Driscoll (1 January 1954 – 24 December 2012) was an Irish poet, essayist, critic and editor.

Regarded as one of the best European poets of his time, Eileen Battersby considered him "the lyric equivalent of William Trevor" and a better poet "by far" than Raymond Carver.

Gerard Smyth regarded him as "one of poetry's true champions and certainly its most prodigious archivist".

His book on Seamus Heaney is regarded as the definitive biography of the Nobel laureate.

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Life and career

O'Driscoll, a salesman/horticulturist, and a homemaker, was born in Thurles, County Tipperary, on January 1st. He was educated by the Congregation of Christian Brothers. After completing his secondary education at the age of sixteen (1970), O'Driscoll was offered a job at Ireland's Office of the Revenue Commissioners, handling both internal and customs. He worked full-time, specializing in "death positions, stamp duties, and customs." He lived in Naas, County Kildare, until his sudden death.

O'Driscoll wrote many part-time and in-house jobs during his writing career in the 1970s and 1980s. He worked as a part-time editor of Tax Briefing, a British journal, as well as writing poetry for Hibernia and The Crane Bag. He served on the board of the Irish United Nations Association from 1975-80. He married Julie O'Callaghan, a writer, in September 1985. O'Driscoll stayed in the revenue industry for as long as he did due to a colleague's suggestion, "If you ever leave your career, you will stop writing." So, income became a sort of fallback choice for him; a career that paid regularly and gave a pension. Poetry was his art, at least. "I have always thought of myself as a public servant rather than a 'poet' or 'artist,' O'Driscoll's book, Sing for the Taxman, states "I'd rather think of myself as a civil servant rather than a 'poet' or 'artist,' a phrase I'd find frustrating and presumptuous' – phrases I'd find frustrating and presum

In early 2008, O'Driscoll was invited to write a poem commemorating the opening of the Revenue Museum in Dublin Castle, marking the first time his work and his art would clash. This poem, At The Revenue Museum, was originally meant to be published in a launch program for the opening ceremony but now hangs as an exhibit in the museum itself.

During the 2012 Christmas season, O'Driscoll died suddenly at the age of 58. After being sick, he was rushed to the hospital, but he quickly succumbed to his destiny. His sudden demise shocked the arts world. Julie O'Callaghan's husband, as well as her siblings Proinsias, Seamus, Declan, and sisters, Marie and Eithne, survived him.

O'Driscoll was "held in the highest regard not only by all those associated with Irish and European literature," according to President Michael D. Higgins. Joe Duffy, with whom O'Driscoll had appeared on television for the first week of his death, called O'Driscoll a "generous, caring, and witty guy." Belinda McKeon, a fellow writer, said he was "a scholar, a gentleman, a figure, a friend." David Morley, an English critic, referred to him as a "fine poet and a great critic." The Irish PEN expressed remembrance over his death.

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Awards and honours

• Lannan Literary Award
• E. M. Forster Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
• O'Shaughnessy Award for Poetry from the Center of Irish Studies in Minnesota
• Poetry Book Society Special Commendation for New and Selected Poems
• Shortlisted for The Irish Times Poetry Now Award 2008 for Reality Check
• Winner of The Irish Times Poetry Now Award 2013 for Dear Life (posthumous)
• Argosy Irish Non-Fiction Book of the Year Award
• Honorary doctorate in literature by University College, Dublin