Irish poet Maurice Riordan finds his voice in London

IN 1970, fresh out of St Colman’s boarding school, I attended UCC.

In my first weeks, I was overtaken on the walk from the college gates by Seán Ó Ríordáin. I was thrilled to see a poet. I still think that, poetry-wise, Ó Ríordáin must be the biggest fish in a Munster jersey.

But the college was a dispiriting place. Lecture halls were overflowing, we queued endlessly in ‘The Rest’ cafeteria, and the old library was a useless place to study. I was soon disillusioned.