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Derek Mahon was born in 1941 in Belfast. He studied at Trinity College in Dublin, being part of a group of noted young poets such as Eavan Boland, Brendan Kennelly and Michael Longley. He also studied for a year at the Sorbonne in Paris.
 
As well as writing poetry, Mahon has worked as a theatre critic and magazine editor during his career. He was also involved in adapting Irish literature for television and radio.
A member of Aosdana and a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he now lives in Kinsale, Co. Cork.

Here is some brief information about the poetry of Derek Mahon that is on your course.

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More detailed information can be found further down the page.

Grandfather.

A poem about old age; the speaker in the poem is watching his grandfather and writing about how he is living through his old age.

Day Trip To Donegal.

A poem about a trip to the sea and how the speaker remembers it and the impact it had on him.

After The Titanic.

Bruce Ismay was the manager of the “White Star Line”, the company that owned the Titanic. He was on the ship when it sank but survived. This poem is about how he felt in the years that followed.

Ecclesiastes.

A sarcastic and cutting poem about very strictly religious people in Northern Ireland.

As It Should Be.

A poem about the hunting down and killing of a terrorist.

A Disused Shed In Co. Wicklow.

A poem about an old forgotten shed in which mushrooms grow, it is also about power and how the weak and helpless can be abandoned.

The Chinese Restaurant In Portrush.

Here, Mahon writes about the quietness of Portrush, Antrim, before the tourists come to visit.

Rathlin.

An account of a visit to Rathlin, an island off the coast of North Antrim.

Antarctica.

Captain Laurence Oats died on an expedition to the South Pole in 1912. This poem is about how he died.

Kinsale.

Mahon writes here about the beginning of sunny weather after a lot of rain in Kinsale, Co. Cork.