Francis Harvey

Life
1925-2014 [fam. Frank] b. Enniskillen; suffered death of his father, 1931; brought up in Ballycastle, in the house of his grandmother; worked as for the Bank of Ireland in Donegal, ending as asst. banker manager; first publiced in Weekly Independent; wrote a successful radio play, Farewell to Every White Cascade (RTE 1958) - joint prize-winner; wrote They Feed Christians to Lions Here, Don't They? (Peacock Th. [Abbey] 1970); winner of Yeats Internat. Summer School Award for poetry; wrote Looking at Benbulben, a play rehearsed in the Peacock and performed in Ballybofey (2002);

issued In the Light on the Stones (1978), a poetry collection; retired from the bank, 1979; won the Guardian and World Wild Life Award, judged by Ted Hughes, with “Heron”, 1989; issued The Boa Island Janus (1996); his Collected Poems were edited by Moya Cannon (2007); Harvey was the subject of an RTÉ FM documentary by Eamon Little, Sept. 2014 - based on an interview made with Donna L. Potts in 2009; d. in Donegal, 8 Nov. 2014; bur. in Enniskillen; survived by wife Agnes and four children; he was a friend of Brendan and Beatrice Behan; member of Aosdána.

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Works
Poetry, In the Light on the Stones (Oldcastle: Gallery 1978), [3] 38pp.; The Rain Makers (Oldcastle: Gallery Press 1988), 53pp. [woodcut cover ill.]; The Boa Island Janus (Dublin: Dedalus 1996), 82pp.; Making Sense (Dublin: Dedalus 2001), 155pp.; Donegal Haiku (Dublin: Dedalus Press 2013), 88pp. Collected Poems, intro. by Moya Cannon (Dublin: Dedalus Press 2007), xvi, 224pp.

Miscellaneous, Contributed short piece in ‘The State of Poetry’ [Special Issue], Krino, ed. Gerald Dawe & Jonathan Williams(Winter 1993), pp.22-23. See also The Poet’s Chair, intro. by Declan Kiberd (Poetry Ireland [2008]), 1 video [with Kerry Hardie].

	—Collected Poems (2007), available at Inpressbooks as pdf [accessed 15.12.2014]. Note: the file incls. Poems, pp.141-45 & 195.

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Criticism
Fred Johnston, review of The Boa Island Janus, in The Irish Times (8 Feb. 1997) [cites “The Seedbed”, in mem. William Allingham]; Donna L. Potts, ed., This Landscape’s Fierce Embrace: the Poetry of Francis Harvey (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publ. 2013), xvii, 210pp. [see details].

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Bibliographical details
Donna L. Potts, ed., This Landscape’s Fierce Embrace: the Poetry of Francis Harvey (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publ. 2013), xvii, 210pp. [contribs from Christine Cusick; Moya Cannon [4 items]; Paula Meehan; Pat Boran; Theo Dorgan; Denise Black; Cathal O Searchaig; Brian Leyden; Clare McDonnell; Peter Fallon ("The Weight of Wealth"); Greagoir O Duill; Joan Newmann; Kate Newmann; Gerard Smyth; Janice Fitzpatrick Simmons; Chris Agee [2 items]; Micheal O Siadhail; Clare McDonnell; Lillis O Laoire; Donna. L. Potts. (Partly available to view at Google Books - online; accessed 15.14.2014.)

Note: Potts expresses gratitude to Moya Cannon for introducing her to the poetry of Francis Harvey adding that she bought the Collected Poems (2007) and had ony to read a few pages ‘before recognising that she was right.’ (p.xv.)

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Commentary
Eamon Grennan, review of Collected Poems [of] Francis Harvey: ‘The poems of Francis Harvey lodge us deep inside a rural (south Donegal) landscape, the overlapping emotional and physical maps of which Harvey knows with startling, at times corrosive, intimacy. In the rinsed light of his minute observations a world is brought to vivid life, animated by compassion, understanding, and a tough grace of observation.’ (Quoted in Gerry Moriarty, notice of Harvey’s death, in The Irish Times, 10 Nov. 2104 - online.)

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Quotations