Limerick teacher explores the time famous poet spent in the capital

Michael Hartnett is a well-regarded and appreciated Limerick poet. Not many can claim the honour of a statue to themselves in a small country town, such as Newcastle West.

His poems have a distinctive style to them and the themes and topics he touches on are heavily influenced by the personalities and environment he experienced.

The esteem Hartnett’s poetry is held in is exemplified by the Eigse Michael Hartnett and he has become woven in the literature scene of the county.

But it would be foolish to consider him just a Limerick poet. He wandered, far and wide. And he used all these experiences in his poetry in a variety of styles and languages.

In Dublin, a place where he spent much time and wrote heartily about, the awareness of him has been slower to develop but that city is dotted with Hartnett if you look close enough.

Hartnett is associated very much with Newcastle West and rightly so, it was there he grew into the man he was.

It was there he learnt to respect, admire and, maybe, fear the nature that surrounds him and became such a component of his poetry, and it was there that one of the biggest influences of his life, his grandmother Brigid, came to fruition.

But Hartnett was not a stationary poet. He moved and with him moved styles and aspects of poetry.

He picked up knowledge and experience on his way. He has, in his wake, left scattered a trail of himself around Dublin.

One of the first locations we think about when literature and Dublin come to mind is the Joyce tower in Sandycove, the opening scene for Joyce’s novel Ulysses. In the famous tower he found one of his first job in Dublin.

In this old maritime building he was curator of the exhibits on Joyce and his famous book for a short while. This position and his time in University College Dublin were both a product of Professor John Jordan of the English department.

Jordan had recognised some of the raw talent Hartnett had produced in a few publications while living in England after his secondary school education. It was Jordan, it could be said, that set Hartnett on his path.

While attending UCD, he met and rubbed shoulders with other impassioned young people and found that academic life was not for him.

He also found himself on the outside of that world after a year, being more a poet like his idols - Brudair and O’Rathaille the famous poets from the Sliabh Luachra region in the 1600s.

Time passed and another location that eked its way into Hartnett’s life was the Northside Dublin community of Rialto in the late 1960s and early 70s.

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After a brief stint in England, it was here he established a home with his new wife and worked nights in the telephone exchange at a local hotel. This freed him during the days for writing. And he made the most of this time publishing three books.

This time can be regarded as a concerted effort by Hartnett to realise his life as poet and seeing it as his main occupation. His work in effortlessly translating both Spanish (works of Lorca) and Irish texts shows us the control and understanding he had of many languages.

It was after this Hartnett slipped away from Dublin and back to West Limerick to immerse himself in Irish language and landscape. For 10 years he left Dublin and its lifestyle behind

Another leafy suburb of Dublin Inchicore, is possibly the most associated site with the poet.

Here, in the mid-1980’s, he wrote the renowned and impressive Inchicore Haikus, the first set of haikus ever published by an Irish poet.

These sets of poems were the first to be published in English, after the poet’s famous rejection of the English language in the 70’s in his Farewell to English.

These haikus are only a brief insight into his life and give short snippets of his voice for readers. It is clear his sardonic wit and sarcastic nature as well as admiration for nature ring out in these short poems.

They also give voice to the hardship he had experienced at the time. The style of poetry he uses showcases his inquisitive nature about different cultures, places and experiences.

Flashes of him exist everywhere in Dublin, in a plague on Tyrconnell road or a picture taken by Bill Doyle (famous Dublin Photographer) of him beside the modernist sculpture near Leeson Street Bridge.

Like an old trail not touched for many years, the memory of Hartnett still lingers around Dublin. Perhaps this memory of Hartnett is stepping more out of the shadows in recent times.

On a walk by the Grand Canal recently I came across a Hartnett poem “In Memory of my Grandmother, Bridgit Halpin” on display by Gallery Press.

This poem printed on the side of a bin made me consider the Dublin Hartnett knew, and the Dublin that does or does not know Hartnett. And I’m sure if we were to peel back the surface of this city a small bit we could find a few fantastic anecdotes of Hartnett in all sorts of locations across this city.