Cork poet Gerry Murphy wins US award

Poet Gerry Murphy has won the Lawrence O'Shaughnessy Award for poetry, worth $5,000.

Cork poet and former lifeguard, Gerry Murphy, has won the Lawrence O'Shaughnessy Award for poetry. Worth $5,000 (€4,600), the award honours outstanding Irish poets. It is named after a former University of St Thomas (in Minnesota) lecturer, trustee and benefactor who helped establish the university's Centre for Irish Studies.

Murphy (69), who has undergone a couple of minor medical procedures in recent years, including surgery on gallstones, is philosophical about getting older. He says that at his age, he has learned "to just take things as they come."