Top
Skip to Content
LOGO(small) - Queen's University Belfast
  • Our facebook
  • Our instagram
  • Our x-twitter
LOGO(large) - Queen's University Belfast

The Seamus Heaney Centre

  • Home
  • About
    • The Centre
    • The Blackbird
    • The Heaney Community
    • Literary Belfast
    • Collections at the Seamus Heaney Centre
  • Our People
    • The SHC Fellows
    • Ciaran Carson & Publishing Fellows
    • Fulbright Scholars
    • Children's Writing Fellow
    • Visiting International Poetry Fellows
    • Ireland Chair of Poetry
  • Study
    • The Poetry Summer School
    • Student Showcases and Opportunities
    • Writing Groups
    • New Students...
    • SHC X Fighting Words
    • Hear from Alumni
  • First Collection Poetry Prize
    • Poetry Prize 2025
    • Poetry Prize 2024
    • Poetry Prize 2023
    • Poetry Prize 2022
    • Poetry Prize 2021
    • Poetry Prize 2020
  • Resources
    • The SHC Podcast
    • SHC Publications
    • Criticism & Ideas on Writing
    • Films & Virtual Events
    • Writers' Interviews
    • Tiny Masterclasses
  • News
  • Events
    • SHC Presents...
    • Ekphrasis: Writing & Art
    • Conferences
    • Reading Seamus Heaney
    • Translation
  • Home
  • About
    • The Centre
    • The Blackbird
    • The Heaney Community
    • Literary Belfast
    • Collections at the Seamus Heaney Centre
  • Our People
    • The SHC Fellows
    • Ciaran Carson & Publishing Fellows
    • Fulbright Scholars
    • Children's Writing Fellow
    • Visiting International Poetry Fellows
    • Ireland Chair of Poetry
  • Study
    • The Poetry Summer School
    • Student Showcases and Opportunities
    • Writing Groups
    • New Students...
    • SHC X Fighting Words
    • Hear from Alumni
  • First Collection Poetry Prize
    • Poetry Prize 2025
    • Poetry Prize 2024
    • Poetry Prize 2023
    • Poetry Prize 2022
    • Poetry Prize 2021
    • Poetry Prize 2020
  • Resources
    • The SHC Podcast
    • SHC Publications
    • Criticism & Ideas on Writing
    • Films & Virtual Events
    • Writers' Interviews
    • Tiny Masterclasses
  • News
  • Events
    • SHC Presents...
    • Ekphrasis: Writing & Art
    • Conferences
    • Reading Seamus Heaney
    • Translation
  • Our facebook
  • Our instagram
  • Our x-twitter
In This Section
  • Paul Farley
  • Sinead Morrissey
  • Don Paterson
  • Paul Muldoon
  • Nick Laird
  • Simon Armitage
  • Richard Murphy
  • Thomas McCarthy
  • Medbh McGuckian
  • Michael Longley
  • Derek Mahon

  • Home
  • Seamus Heaney Centre
  • File Store
  • Old filestore
  • Louis MacNeice Centenary Conference and Celebration
  • Poetry Readings
  • Thomas McCarthy

Thomas McCarthy


Thomas McCarthy at the Louis MacNeice Centenary Conference & Celebration
Thomas McCarthy © Paul Maddern

Thomas McCarthy was born in Waterford in 1954. A poet, novelist and librarian, he lives and works in Cork. He made a major contribution to the city’s year as European Capital of Culture. He has published seven collections of poems with Anvil, most recently Merchant Prince (2005). He has received the Literary Award of the Irish American Foundation.

August Kleinzahler writes: ‘No other poet comes to mind, living or dead, who has succeeded in engaging the political as poetic subject matter as McCarthy manages in his poems about the Fianna Fail Party. There is a larger quality, or group of qualities, behind McCarthy’s success in the realm of political poetry that extends to his other poetry. It has something to do with the restraint in voice and tone.. an unusual degree of compositional balance.’

The following recordings were made at the Louis MacNeice Centenary Celebration and Conference at Queen's University, Belfast in September 2007.

Atonement

Broken Promises

A Fianna Fail Adoption

Thinking of my Father in the Musee Picasso

The Waiting Deputies

At the Grave of Amadei Dale Wallace

Nathaniel Murphy in his Sister's Bedroom, 1798

He witnesses Another Hanging, 1813

A Fiction - The Sea

© All recordings copyright Thomas McCarthy and the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry.

Thomas was reading with Medbh McGuckian, Michael Longley and Derek Mahon.

Poetry Readings
  • Poetry Readings
  • Paul Farley
  • Sinead Morrissey
  • Don Paterson
  • Paul Muldoon
  • Nick Laird
  • Simon Armitage
  • Richard Murphy
  • Thomas McCarthy
  • Medbh McGuckian
  • Michael Longley
  • Derek Mahon
QUB Logo
Contact Us

Seamus Heaney Centre
38-40 University Road, Belfast
BT7 1NN

GET DIRECTIONS

Phone: 028 9097 1077
Email: shc@qub.ac.uk 

Quick Links

  • Home
  • Study
  • People
  • Literary Belfast
  • News
  • Events

© Queen's University Belfast 2024
  • Privacy and cookies
  • Website accessibility
  • Freedom of information
  • Modern slavery statement
  • Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
  • University Policies and Procedures
Information
  • Privacy and cookies
  • Website accessibility
  • Freedom of information
  • Modern slavery statement
  • Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
  • University Policies and Procedures

© Queen's University Belfast 2024

Manage cookies