Derry O'Sullivan

Derry O'Sullivan
Portrait of Derry O`Sullivan by Reginald Gray, Paris, 2002
Born	Bantry, Co. Cork, Ireland
Occupation	Poet, professor
Language	Irish/French/English
Nationality	Irish

Derry O'Sullivan is an Irish poet living in Paris, France. He was born in 1944 in Bantry, Co. Cork, Ireland.

His poetry collections in the Irish language are: "Cá bhfuil do Iudás?" (Dublin, Coiscéim, 1987) - winner of four Oireachtas Literary prizes and the Seán Ó Ríordáin Memorial Prize; "Cá bhfuil Tiarna Talún l’Univers?" (Dublin, Coiscéim, 1994); "An Lá go dTáinig Siad" (Dublin, Coiscéim, 2005), a long poem about the Nazi occupation of Paris, and "An bhfuil cead agam dul amach, más é do thoil é?" (Dublin, Coiscéim, 2009). He has participated in literary festivals in Ireland, France, the US and Canada and his work has been published in numerous literary reviews and anthologies.

O'Sullivan's poems have been translated into English and French and several of them can be consulted in Harvard University Library. His work appears in English translation in "The King’s English" (Paris, First Impressions, 1987). "En Mal de Fleurs" (Québec, Lèvres Urbaines 30 1988) is a suite of poems written directly in French.

An English translation by Kaarina Hollo of O'Sullivan's poem "Marbhghin 1943: Glaoch ar Liombo" ("Stillborn 1943: Calling Limbo") won the 2012 Times Stephen Spender Prize for poetry translation, a competition open to poems in all languages and from all periods of history.

O'Sullivan's poem ‘Blip’ was incorporated into the fabric of the Gaelscoil (Irish-medium primary school) in Bantry, Co. Cork, as part of a public art project in 2014, in collaboration with the artists Cleary&Connolly [1].

O'Sullivan made the first direct translation of the 10th-Century Irish poem "Cailleach Béara" ("The Lament of the Old Woman of Beare") into French, in collaboration with Jean-Yves Bériou and Martine Joulia, as "Lamentations de la vieille femme de Beare", published in a hand-printed Irish/French bilingual edition (Paris, 1992, 1995) and revised in 2006 (Éditions de l'Escampette).