Declan Kiberd

Declan Kiberd (born 24 May 1951) is an Irish writer and scholar. He is known for his literary criticism of Irish literature in Irish and English, and his contributions to public cultural life.

In 2011, he was included by John Naughton in The Observer among his three hundred "public figures leading our cultural discourse".

Kiberd was born in Dublin and went to Belgrove Primary School, where he was taught by the distinguished novelist John McGahern, before moving to St. Paul's College, Raheny. He is the brother of journalist Damien Kiberd. In 1969, he won an award to study Irish and English at Trinity College, Dublin, where he got a double first and a Gold Medal. He then went to Linacre College, Oxford where he took a DPhil under the late Richard Ellmann, the biographer of James Joyce, Oscar Wilde and W. B. Yeats.

Kiberd is the Donald and Marilyn Keough Professor of Irish Studies and professor of English at the University of Notre Dame. Before this he held the Chair of Anglo-Irish Literature and Drama at University College, Dublin until 2011. He joined UCD as lecturer in Anglo-Irish literature in 1979. He taught English previously in the University of Kent at Canterbury (1976–77), and Irish in Trinity College Dublin (1977–79). He was appointed Chair of Anglo-Irish Literature and Drama at UCD in 1997.

He has also been Director of the Yeats International Summer School (1985–87), patron of the Dublin Shaw Society (1995–2000), a columnist with The Irish Times (1985–87) and The Irish Press (1987–93), the presenter of the RTÉ arts programme, Exhibit A (1984–86), and a regular essayist and reviewer in The Irish Times, The Times Literary Supplement, the London Review of Books and The New York Times.

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