Thomas McCarthy, diaries of a librarian poet: 'What a scurrilous pup I was'

The newly-published diaries of the Cork-based poet have accounts of his days in UCC, poet rivalries and his friendship with the likes  of Molly Keane

Thomas McCarthy has published his journals covering the years 1974-2014. Picture: Denis Minihane

Having recently published his journals covering the years 1974-2014, Waterford-born poet Thomas McCarthy admits that some of the diary entries now annoy him. 

"For example, what a scurrilous pup I was to think I should have been given a UCC tutorship when I had handed in only one out of four essays in poor Sr Una Nelly's class. That kind of youthful vanity and self-regard annoys me still. From where I am now, I seem to have been a vain self-obsessed youth," says the poet.