Writing in The Irish News a few years ago about his memoir A City Imagined: Belfast Soulscapes, Gerald Dawe described how he had come to the realisation that it was the stories handed down by his mother that had given the impetus to write himself.
She had grown up in Duncairn Gardens in north Belfast, and he recalled how her reminiscences would spring forth at any time and in any circumstance, sparked by sights or sounds from everyday life.
Dawe would also draw heavily on his upbringing in post-war Northern Ireland in his 13 collections of work, reflecting on connections between past and present, and the extraordinary in the ordinary. Despite being based in Dún Laoghaire for many years, he remained acutely conscious of his Belfast roots.
Born in the north if the city in 1952, he was a pupil at Orangefield boys’ school and was involved in the Lyric Youth Theatre under Sam McCready.
He studied English at the University of Ulster in Coleraine and wrote his thesis on Tyrone-born author William Carleton at the University of Galway, where he lectured and published his debut collection of poetry, Sheltering Places, in 1978. He later moved to Trinity College Dublin, where he was a professor of English until his retirement in 2017.
While there he helped establish the first graduate programme in creative writing by an Irish university and was inaugural director of the Oscar Wilde Centre for Irish Writing.
As well as poetry, Dawe published collections of essays and criticism and edited several anthologies. Last month he was named winner of the Lawrence O’Shaughnessy Award for Irish poetry.
The Arts Council of Northern Ireland said it is in his poetry, with its spare, lean style, that “his legacy will register most powerfully”.
Chief executive Roisín McDonough said: “The death of poets is felt keenly in Ireland and this is particularly true in Northern Ireland, where writers have been companions for decades across so much of our difficult shared story.
“Gerry Dawe’s contribution to our literature and wider culture is important and enduring, the central idea of a civic and civil life for all remains valid and necessary. He was a good friend to the arts in his native place and his absence will be felt by us and by many.”
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President Michael D Higgins said his work “embraced the most important themes of life and the heart, out of a red-bricked context of Belfast”.
“In the collections, the most sensitive of themes are undertaken with a meticulous care of crafting that seemed to me a recall of all the diverse skills of the shipyard. The standard he set for himself was so high that nothing is redundant or irrelevant in the lines, something special is being recreated or is the basis of a response.
“His passing represents a very significant and special loss to Irish poetry and to all those who love poems.”
Gerald Dawe died at his home in Dún Laoghaire on Wednesday after “a long illness, fought with bravery and conviction”.
He is survived by his wife Dorothea, daughter Olwen, stepson Iarla, sister Pamela and family circle.
A celebration of his life will take place in the National Maritime Museum of Ireland in Dún Laoghaire on Thursday.