Martin Mooney

Life
1964- ; b. Belfast; grew up in Newtownards, Co. Down; ed. QUB, taking a 1st in English and Philosophy; worked in pubs in N. England; research student at QUB in when he appeared in the Trio series (Blackstaff 1987); issued Brecht and an Exquisite Corpse: Two Long Poems (1992); Escaping with Cuts and Bruises (Honest Ulsterman 1993) [var. 1992]; Grub (1993), shortlisted for Ruth Hadden Memorial Award; winner of Brendan Behan Memorial Award, 1994; Rasputin and His Children (2001);

lived in London but returned to become a faculty member at James Simmons’s [q.v.] Poets’ House, Portmuck, Co. Antrim; issued Blue Lamp Disco (2003), a third collection; his adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream presented by Bruiser Theatre Company at the Old Museum Arts Centre, Belfast, and nominated for a Belfast City Council Arts Award, 2002; adaptation of Ionescu’s Rhinoceros presented by Kabosh at OMAC, 2003; currently lives in Whitehead, Co Antrim; co-editing anthology of criticism on Northern Irish poetry in 2004. ORM

[ top ]

Works
Poetry
  • with Dennis Greig and Janet Shepperson], Trio 5 (Belfast: Blackstaff Press 1987), 64pp.
  • Brecht and an Exquisite Corpse: Two Long Poems (Belfast: Lapwing 1992), 42pp. [pamphlet].
  • Escaping with Cuts and Bruises (Belfast: Honest Ulsterman 1992) [pamphlet].
  • Grub (Belfast: Blackstaff 1993; CavanKerry Press 2002)).
  • Bonfire Makers (Dublin: Dedalus 1995), 87pp. [ltd. edn. of 250].
  • Bonfire Makers (Dublin: Dedalus 1996), 24pp. [12 pieces].
  • Rasputin and His Children (Blackwater Press 2001; rep. Lagan Press 2003), 60pp.
  • Blue Lamp Disco (Belfast: Lagan Press 2003).
Miscellaneous
  • contrib. short piece in ‘The State of Poetry’ special issue, Gerald Dawe and Jonathan Williams, eds., Krino (Winter 1993), p.48 [‘... the set of conversations Irish poets had with their rulers, their fellow citizens, their lovers and themselves, looks to be vigorous’].
  • contrib. poems ‘‘Operation Spanner’’, ‘‘Blowfish’’, ‘‘A Protestant School’’, ‘‘The Vans’’, to Fortnight (March 1996), p.39.

[ top ]

References
Patrick Crotty, ed., Modern Irish Poetry: An Anthology (Belfast: Blackstaff Press 1995), selects “Anna Akhmatova’s Funeral” [421].

[ top ]