Mary Shine Thompson Editor

Michael Kirby / Micheal Ua Ciarmhaic (1906-2005) was an Irish and English language prose writer and poet whose first collection was published at the age of seventy-eight. He was the author of numerous further collections of poetry and prose in both Irish and English, including Skelligside (1990), Skelligs Calling (2003) and the posthumous Skelligs Sunset (2006). Michael Kirby was a talented landscape painter, a profoundly knowledgeable folklorist, an engaging memoirist and an environmentalist before his time. Mary Shine Thompson was formerly a lecturer in English at St Patrick's College Drumcondra, Dublin City University, and edited Michael Kirby's posthumously published book, Skelligs Sunset. She was awarded a doctorate in Anglo-Irish Literature and has been on the editorial boards of several academic journals. She has edited, inter alia, the plays of Austin Clarke (published by Colin Smythe), an edition of the Seamus Heaney Lectures and numerous collections of academic writings on children's literature (Four Courts Press). She has chaired several national bodies, including Poetry Ireland, Imram, and Encountering the Arts Ireland.