Louis de Paor
Born in Cork in 1961, Louis de Paor is a poet, teacher and editor. He studied at the National University of Ireland, Cork, where he received a degree in Irish and Heritage Studies. de Paor moved to Melbourne in 1987 and did not return to live in Ireland until 1996.
Between 1984 and 1988 he served as assistant editor of Innti and then as editor until 1990. He lectured at the University of Sydney and presented an Irish radio programme in Melbourne, also receiving various scholarships from the Austalian Council in 1990, 1991, and 1995.
In 2000, he was awarded the prestigious Lawrence O’Shaughnessy Award, the first poet writing in Irish to do so. Louis de Paor’s first collection of poetry, Próca solais is luatha (BÁC: Coiscéim, 1988), won Duais an Ríordánaigh in the Oireachtas literary competitions, a prize which he has won four times.
Other collections include 30 dán (BÁC: Coiscéim, 1992), Corcach agus dánta eile (BÁC: Coisceim, 1999) and most recently Agus rud eile de (BÁC: Coiscéim, 2002). While in Australia he published Aimsir bhreicneach / Freckled weather (Canberra: Leros Press, 1993) and Ríleanna báistí (Indreabhán: Cló Iar-Chonnachta, 1992). He has also written critical and academic works.
Louis de Paor currently lives in Galway and is the Director of the Centre for Irish Studies at the National University of Ireland, Galway. His most recent collection, Agus Rud Eile De/ And Another Thing is published by Cló Iar-Chonnachta (2010).