WRITER PROFILE

Theo Dorgan interviews the Belfast poet Michael Longley. Longley is considered one of the most powerful poets of his time and his associations with his contemporaries, Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, Brendan Kennelly and Eavan Boland have been major influences in his life.

He is a thoroughly genial interviewee and raconteur and his reflections on writing are witty, self-effacing and candid. Longley engages us from the start with his story about writing bad poetry to impress a particular girl when he was a young lad and how later at Trinity College in Dublin he wrote what he considers "turgid splurges of so-called poetry" at a phenomenal rate.

When Derek Mahon arrived in Trinity everything changed and Longley says he learned about "shaping the poems from Derek" and compares their relationship to a kind of apprenticeship. Longley's first published work came in 1969 as Northern Ireland erupted into violence and though the poems were well received, some people criticised him for not mentioning the Troubles; what they didn't know is that he had been ten years in search of a publisher.

In 1973 he published 'An Exploded View' a collection whose poems are an articulation on the North of Ireland and what was happening there. Theo asks him about the genesis of his famous poem 'Wound' where Longley introduces his father who died in the first world as a central character and he explains "I wanted some way into this communal catastrophe and I asked myself the simple question, "what would my father as an old soldier make of the mayhem?". A haunting moment in the interview is when Longley quotes "I go down on my knees and do what must be done and kiss a killer's hand, the killer of my son".

On poetry itself Longley talks about how at times he has lost the power of writing and how this has affected him deeply and personally. Now, he says "I feel that I am only beginning, there was a time when for years I wrote nothing. When they come I am grateful, it's more exciting than drink or sex, I think I am just hooked".


Biographical Details

Born in Belfast in 1939 Michael Longley was educated at Royal Academical Institution and TCD.

A former poetry critic of The Irish Times, his collections include 'No Continuing City' (1969), 'An Exploded View' (1973), 'Man Lying On a Wall' (1976), 'The Echo Gate' (1979), 'Gorse Fires' (1991), 'The Ghost Orchid' (1995) and 'The Weather in Japan' (2000).

He is a former editor of Causeway: 'The Arts in Ulster' (1971) and produced an anthology of children's verse, 'Under the Moon, Over the Stars' (1971).

Longley worked as a teacher in England and Ireland from 1962-9 prior to joining the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, of which he became combined arts director.

His eye for detail and ear for the spoken word give his vignettes a clarity which makes for powerful impact when he deals with the horrors of war or terrorist killings.

In quieter mood, he catches the flavour of urban flats or terraced housing, finding poetry in the thoughts of ordinary people living ordinary lives.


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Running Time: 30mins
Year Made: 1999
Price: €20 - PAL (European), €30 - NTSC (US) plus P&P