President Higgins leads tributes to 'unique talent' and close friend Paul Durcan

Poet Paul Durcan, who passed away on Saturday. File Picture: Maura Hickey.

The renowned poet Paul Durcan has died at the age of 80, his family confirmed.

Born in Dublin in 1944, Mr Durcan published more than 20 books over his lengthy career, including the collections including A Snail in My Prime, Crazy About Women, Greetings to Our Friends in Brazil, Cries of an Irish Caveman, and The Berlin Wall Café.

His work also saw him garner numerous awards, including the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award in 1974, the Irish American Cultural Institute Poetry Award in 1989, the Whitbread Prize in 1990, and the London Poetry Book Society Choice.

Many of his poems have been featured on the Leaving Certificate English syllabus.

Mr Durcan turned 80 just last year. A collection of his work titled 80 at 80, edited by Niall MacMonagle, was published to mark the occasion.

In his introduction to the collection, which was also published in The Irish Times, writer Colm Tóibín described Paul Durcan’s work as “daring, directly personal as well as directly political.”

"Durcan’s public poems are risk-taking explorations of the intersection where tragedy and comedy meet in contemporary Ireland," he wrote.

"His poems are open forms filled by voices, often the voice of the poet himself or someone like him, or the voice of a persona he has created or a character he has made. Some of the narrative is shot through with surprise or delight or wonder at the strangeness of the world or the sheer sadness of things.

"At the centre of Durcan’s poetic enterprise is an urge to destabilise and make us re-see what is odd and what is ordinary."

A member of Aosdána, the National Library of Ireland acquired Paul Durcan's archive in 2024.

In a statement, Mr Durcan's family said he would be “sadly missed by [his wife] Nessa, his daughters Sarah and Síabhra, his son Michael, his sons-in-law, Mark and Blaise, his daughter-in-law, Linden, and his nine grandchildren.” 

Funeral details will be announced at a later date, his family added.

President Higgins paid tribute to Paul Paul Durcan saying he was "one of Ireland’s most important poets, and a close friend for over 50 years".

"Paul Durcan’s contribution to the performed poem was of enormous importance to the appreciation of poetry in Ireland," he said.

"We have audiences in so many generations for Irish poetry owes much to him and those others who brought their work around Ireland and abroad."

'One of Ireland's most important poets'

President Higgins said "Paul’s reading of poems in diverse settings was a wonderful encouragement to poets starting out".

"I remember him being in an agony of tension before a radio reading but when the first line was delivered the trance was under way."

President Higgins said his friend's "knowledge of philosophy and the history of art was vast".

His beautiful pieces from visits to the National Gallery are essays in how to relate to painters, time and subject.

"I spent a considerable time with him back in 1979. We discussed the value of an image notebook! He played with our children in the woods of Barna and Merlin Park and sent beautiful messages to the children. 

"Sabina and I know him as a dear friend. Early in my presidency he visited us in the Áras. His illness was hard for him to bear and Ireland was missing a great and unique talent in poetry."

President Higgins said Durcan's 20 collections will be "a source of great humanity and insight for generations to come".

"Ireland has lost the poet with the keenest sense of its absurdity and the lost opportunities for love and feeling," he added.

xxjob 03.03.15 Caroline O'Doherty interview. Poet Paul Durcan. Picture: Maura Hickey.

Speaking on Saturday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said Paul Durcan was one of Ireland's "outstanding poets and literary figures".

He said Mr Durcan was "capable of both searing honesty and great wit", and that his works "will continue to be celebrated across generations".

"My sympathies go to his wife Nessa, children Sarah, Siabhra and Michael, and his wider family and friends."

Tánaiste Simon Harris described Paul Durcan as "unflinchingly honest, witty and one of Ireland’s best poetic voices".

"In the quiet spaces of ordinary moments, he found inspiration.

"His body of work was both accessible and deep and this is shown in his fantastic final selection of eighty of his finest poems, published in celebration of his 80th birthday last year," Mr Harris said.

"With his passing, Ireland has lost one of its most distinctive and authentic voices - and his work, which often turned the mundane into the extraordinary, will live on for generations."