Poet and critic who knew what really mattered

FOR those fortunate to read him, Robert (Bobby) O’Donoghue, who died recently, was a guide to what literature and the arts could offer.

Through his writings in the Cork Examiner and Evening Echo, he brought before us the works of other cultures as well as telling us of our own. No one was more scathing of the second-rate and shoddy than Bobby O’Donoghue.

He was widely read and he put his reading to good use. His own gifts as poet and dramatist served him well as a critic and commentator. His prose was clear and coherent, sure evidence of a mind that had come to grips with his subject and did not have to resort to vague generalities to conceal ignorance.