TCD Academic and Writer Gerald Dawe Launches New Book on Irish War Poetry

Posted on: 08 December 2008

Earth Voices Whispering: Irish War Poetry 1914-1945, edited by Gerald Dawe, Director of the Oscar Wilde Centre for Irish Writing at Trinity College was recently launched at the National Museum , Collins Barracks by Director General of RTE, Cathal Goan.                                                                                                

Earth Voices Whispering is the first anthology of its kind dealing with the poetry of war and the experience of war, bringing together over three hundred poems recording the thoughts and experiences of Ireland ‘s poets as soldiers, observers, protestors and mourners.

The book, which takes its title from a poem, ‘Nocturne’ by Trinity graduate, Thomas MacGreevy, includes the work of many TCD graduates, such as the world famous lyricist, Jimmy Kennedy, Patrick MacDonogh, Samuel Beckett, Leslie Daiken, Maurice Craig, Robert Greacen, to whom the anthology is dedicated, Bruce Williamson, Brendan Kennelly, Michael Longley, Derek Mahon, Eilean Ni Chuilleanain, Eavan Boland, Anthony Glavin and editor, Gerald Dawe.

Gerald Dawe has also recently been honoured with the position of the Charles A. Heimbold, Jr. Chair of Irish Studies in the University of Villanova, Pennsylvania, USA. Inaugurated in 2000, the chair is held in the Spring semester of each academic year by a distinguished Irish writer and is one of the most prestigious Irish Studies positions in the United States . Previous holders of the Heimbold Chair include Marina Carr, Sebastian Barry and Peter Fallon. 

Earth voices whispering