President leads tributes as poet and TV presenter Pat Ingoldsby dies aged 82
Pat Ingoldsby, Dublin poet, writer, storyteller, icon, at home in Clontarf in 2023. Picture: Courtesy of Seamus Murphy
The President has led tributes today following the death of maverick poet and legendary tv presenter Pat Ingoldsby, at the age of 82.
Michael D Higgins said he wanted to ignore the advice in Ingoldsbyâs own poem, A Message for When I'm Gone, and pay tribute to him for the remarkable way in which he introduced generations to poetry, verse and humour.
âI think it is important to recognise Pat Ingoldsby on behalf of the generations of children and adults too who benefited from the incredibly wide ways that Pat introduced them to poetry, verse and humour,â he said.
âPat Ingoldsby's contribution was unique and particular, but incredibly inclusive.
âSo many people will have memories of discussing his work with him on Westmoreland Street in Dublin.
âPat is and will remain in the memory of those across all ages who enjoyed his poetry, drama and performance.
âMay I express my sympathies to Pat's family, friends and all those who so enjoyed his work."
Taoiseach MicheĂĄl Martin also paid tribute to a man he said was âbeloved across generationsâ.
Posting on X, he said: âPatâs unique humour, observations on his native Dublin, and work on childrenâs TV enchanted young and old. My deepest sympathies to his family and friends.â
Ingoldsby was a household name in the 1980s for his work on children's TV shows on including , , and . His death was announced on social media today.
He was also widely known for his collections of poetry, which he sold on the streets of Dublin, and he wrote some episodes of the famous children's TV show, .
But he also wrote plays for the stage and for radio, published books of short stories and wrote a newspaper column for the in the 1990s. He withdrew from public attention in the early 1990s to devote all of his time to writing poems and selling his books on the streets of Dublin.
His first collections of poems were brought out by different Irish publishing houses. But in 1994, he founded his own publishing house, Willow Publications, and in 2015, after nearly 25 years selling his poetry on the streets, he retired from that too, but continued writing poems.
He was the feature of the 2022 documentary, . It included his first interview on camera since 1993.
The film examined the life, the influences and work of the fondly remembered eccentric, who was until recently, a familiar presence on the streets of Dublin selling his poetry.
Seamus Murphy, who directed the film and who knew Mr Ingoldsby for over 20 years, described him as a unique person and an unbelievable character who will be sorely missed.
"When he was on tv in the 1980s, he was such a unique person when Ireland was not the groovy place it is now,â he said.
The documentary investigated his âidiosyncratic worldâ, and was interspersed with his poems and candid anecdotes which bore witness to "a visceral relationship with his beloved Dublin, fellow Dubliners and anything that catches his interestâ.
It recalled his childhood in Malahide, where he suffered with polio and spent a lot of his time on the family sofa listening to , and how he spent time "riding the rails in between jobs" in England before finding employment for three years in a Vauxhall factory in London, and suffered the first of several nervous breakdowns in the 1960s.
The feature included interviews with Ingoldsby's family and others, and chronicled his âdescent into mental illnessâ with Ingoldsby ultimately crediting Gestalt therapy with breaking his cycle of psychiatric care and helping him to become a more "healthy, well-rounded, balanced personâ.
