Frank McGuinness

‘[Frank McGuinness] is a fine poet…. an important ‘Northern’ writer, although his reach extends much wider than that contentious province. As a dramatist, he’s up there with Friel. As a poet, he fits with Montague and Hewitt, with perhaps a spicing of Longley. He can be lyrical and strident. He is steeped in his home place, its lore and memory. ‘ — Books Ireland

Frank McGuinness was born in County Donegal in 1953 and now lives in Dublin. He was educated locally and at University College Dublin, where he studied Pure English and Medieval Studies.

His plays include The Factory Girls, Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, Mutabilitie, Gates of Gold, There Came a Gypsy Riding and Dolly West’s Kitchen. He has adapted works of Lorca, Chekhov, Brecht, Strindberg, Pirandello and Sophocles. His version of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House won a ‘Tony’ award in 1997.

The Gallery Press has published his seven collections of poetry — Booterstown (1994), The Sea with No Ships (1999) The Stone Jug (2003), Dulse (2007), In a Town of Five Thousand People (2012), The Wedding Breakfast (2019), May Twenty-second (2022) and The River Crana (forthcoming in May 2025).

Frank McGuinness previously lectured in Linguistics and Drama at the University of Ulster, Medieval Studies at University College, Dublin and English at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth.

A member of Aosdána, Frank McGuinness is Professor Emeritus of Creative Writing in UCD which conferred on him the Ulysses Medal (2019).

The River Crana

Frank McGuinness’s eighth collection is a book equally at home in Donegal as Japan and ancient Illyria. From poems of empathy with the death of Sylvia Plath and the lost children of Pompeii, anything is possible.

€12.95 pb
€19.50 hb