Life
1886-1956 [Tom Carnduff; sometimes ‘The Island Poet’; viz.,
Queen’s Island]; Presbyterian, socialist, Belfastman; son of Army
corporal from Drumbow who was invalided, and Jane Bollard; shipyard worker,
employed by Workman and Clark, north side of Lagan; printer during adolescence;
saw service in WWI; returned to shipyards, and later worked as binman,
Civil Defence worker (WWII), and finally as caretaker at Linen Hall Library;
twice married; four sons with first wife (d.1939; remarried 1940); lived
latterly on Hanover St.; member of Independent Orange Order, and Master
of an Independent Lodge in the 1920s and 30s; fnd. Belfast Poetry Circle,
1926; wrote to Belfast Telegraph lamenting absence of first-class
local literary man to assist our poetry circle, answered caustically
by John Hewitt (30 July 1926); fnd. Ulster Society, 1936; Poverty Street
(1921); Songs from the Shipyards, poems (1924); Workers,
a major play premiered at the Abbey, 1932, and now extant in incomplete
copy only; Songs of an Out of Work (1932), written when himself
unemployed; Machinery (1933); Traitors (1934); Castlereagh
(1934), historical drama, combining themes of Empire and ’98 Republicanism
(the sole complete typescript); The Stars Foretell (1938), all
played in Belfast and Abbey; collaborated with Denis Johnston on radio
documentary, ‘Birth of a Giant (1937), on shipbuilding; contrib.
to The Bell first Ulster issue on ‘Belfast’ (1942); under ed. of his friend Peadar O’Donnell, ‘The
Orange Society’ (July 1951); also ‘Belfast as an Irish City’
(Apr. 1952); an autobiography written for Richard Rowley’s Mourne
Press. also incomplete, published in Life and Writings, ed. John
Gray (1994), which also contains pieces of his journalism; Carnduff’s
Songs from the Shipyards and Other Poems was the first book of
poetry purchased by John Hewitt, in 1924. DUB
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Works
Poverty Street and Other Poems [rep of 1921 edn.] (Belfast: Lapwing
1993), 25pp
Contribution to The Bell ‘Ulster Issue’ (July 1941) elicited by O’Faolain.
John Gray, ed., [pref. material 56pp.] Thomas Carnduff, Life and Writings (Lagan Press 1994), 191pp.
Brendan Hamill reviews Gray, ed., Life and Works of Thomas Carnduff (1994 Lagan Press), in Fortnight Review (April 1995)
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Belfast Public Library holds Castlereagh, a play of 1798 [typescript]; Poverty Street and Other Poems (Belfast: Lapwing 1993), 75pp.; Songs of an Out-of-Work (Belfast: Quota 1932), 55pp.; Songs from the Shipyard & Other Poems (Belfast: EH Thorton [n.d.]
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)