Life
1919-1982 [Eugene Rutherford Louis Watters]; b. Ballinasloe Co. Galway,
son of shoemaker; ed. St. Joseph’s College, Garbally, nr. Ballinasloe;
joined army in 1939; entered St. Patrick’s TT College, Drumcondra,
in 1939; held commission in the Irish Army during the Emergency, 1939-45;
grad Dip. Ed., 1945; worked as Dublin teacher at Finglas, 1940-69; completed
an MA at UCD, 1947; m. Una McDonnell, painter (d.1965); horse-drawn travels
with Una; won Arts Council prize for hist. trag, and Abbey Theatre prize
for Christmas pantomime in Irish; experimented with modernist poetry in
The Week-end of Diarmuid and Grania (1964; rep. 1985), ‘an
orchestra of images, moods, insights and emotions, arranged in semi-dramatic
and fugal patterns’, narrating their attempted flight to the west
of Ireland from suburban Dublin and modern life in the post-nuclear age;
Lux Aeterna (1964); edited Gaelic League journal Feasta on
resigning from fulltime teaching, 1969; issued two novels in English,
Murder in Three Moves (1960), a thriller, and The Story of a
Hedgeschool Master (1975); also L’Attaque (Allen Figgis
1962), a fictional account of ‘the year of the French’, in Irish;
seriously effect by the death of his wife Una, 1965; m. Rita Kelly, poet, 1972, settling at Mageney, Co. Carlow, where he resumed
creative work; Aisling Mheic Artáin (Abbey, 4 Oct. 1977),
dir. Peadar Lamb, followed by an Abbey panto, Oisín (26
Dec. 1977), with his friend Tomás Mac Anna; publ. An Lomnachtán
(1978), poem inspired by Middle Irish Eachtra Lomnachtáin
[The Adventure of the Naked One]; two novels in English and collections
of verse in Irish and English; a lament by Desmond Egan appeared in Elegies
(1996); he was an inaugural member of Aosdana; d. Caim, Co. Wexford,
24 Aug. DIW DIB FDA OCIL
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Works
Poetry, ‘The Week-end of Dermot
and Grace’ (Allen Figgis & Son 1964), Do., rep. in ‘Eugene
Watters Special Issue’ Poetry Ireland Review, No. 13 (Spring
1985); Lux Aeterna, including ‘Hiroshima Mass’ (Dublin:
Allen Figgis 1964); Dé Luain (Dublin: Allen Figgis 1966);
contrib. on ‘Christian names’ to Encyclopaedia of Ireland
(Figgis 1968), pp.119-21; New Passages (1973); Rogha an
Fhile, anthol. with trans. (1974); plays, Lá Fhéile
Michíl (Dublin: Clodhanna Teo., 1967), tragedy set in Civil
War; Aisling Mhic Artáin (Dublin: Clodhanna Teo., [Folens]
1978); Fornocht do Conac, play (Dublin: Foilseacháin an
Rialtais 1981); essays, Focus, with Desmond Egan (1972), and Dialann
sa Díseart (1972), poetry [with Rita Kelly, his 2nd wife] (Dublin:
Coiscéim 1981); Religio Poetae agus Aistí Eile, essays,
ed. Maírín Nic Eoin (Baile Átha Cliath: An Clóchomhar
1987).
Fiction, Murder in Three Moves (1960), thriller; L’Attaque, in Irish (Allen Figgis 1962); [The Story of a] Hedgeschool Master (1975); An Lomnochtán, autobiog. (Dublin & Cork: Mercier) 1978).
Miscellaneous, Ó Tuairisc trans. ‘My Little Black Ass’ in Padraic Ó Conaire, 15 short stories, with other writers (Poolbeg 1982); for source of Weekend of Diarmuid and Grania, see Nessa Ní Shé, Tóraíocht Dhiarmada agus Ghráinne (Dublin 1971); ‘Dialann Deoraí’, in John Jordan, ed., The Pleasures of Gaelic Literature (1977).
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Criticism
Oliver Snoddy, ‘Notes on Literature in Irish Dealing with the Fight for
Freedom’, Éire-Ireland, 3, 2 (Summer 1968), pp. 138-48.
James Cahalan, Great Hatred, Little Room, The Irish Historical Novel (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1983).
‘Eugene Watters Special Issue’ Poetry Ireland Review, 13 (Spring 1985) [contribs. Sean Lucy, Martin Nugent, Colbert Kearney].
Máirín Nic Eoin, Eoghan Ó Tuairisc, Beatha agus Saothar (Baile Átha Cliath: An Clóchomhar 1988).
Poetry Ireland Review, Special Eugene Watters No., ed. Conleth Ellis, Rita E. Kelly, No. 13 (Spring 1985), biog. notes, critical essays, and bibl.).
‘Comhrá le hEoghan Ó Tuairisc, Innti 6 (1981); Comhar, ‘Eoghan Ó Tuairisc 1919-1982’, (Deireadh Fómhair 1985).
Máirín Nic Eoin, ‘An Litríocht mar Athscríobh na Staire; L’Attaque agus Dé Luain le hEoghan Ó Tuairisc’, Léachtaí Cholm Cille XXI (1991).
Mícheál Mac Craith, ‘Geineasas, Antigone agus Lá Fhéile Míchíl, Comhar (Deireadh Fómhair 1985).
John Jordan, ‘The West Awake’, review of L’Attaque, in Irish Press (21 Lunasa 1980) [cited Titley, An tÚrscéal Gaeilge, 1991].
Rita E. Kelly, ‘Tóraíocht Dhiarmada Uí Ghráine’, letter in Feasta (Bealtaine 1976), pp.21-22.
Rita E.Kelly, ‘Lig Sinn I gCathú, Leabhar Éadrom?’, in Feasta (Júil 1976) [n.p].
Micheál Mac Craith, ‘L’Ataque, Urscéal faoi Stúir’, in Macalla (Gallaimh 1982), pp.15-36.
Murchadh Mac Diarmada, ‘L’Attaque Fa Ionsaí!’, in Agus (Beltaine 1962), pp.6-7.
C. Ní Mh., ‘L’Attaque’, Deirdre (Fomhar 1962); Aindreas Ó Gallchobhair, ‘L’Attaque’, in Irish Press (26 Bealtaine 1962).
Alex Davis, ‘The Irish Modernists and Their Legacy’, in Matthew Campbell, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Contemporary Irish Poetry (Cambridge UP 2003), pp.76-93, espec. p.82ff.
Bríghid U í Éigeartaigh, letter to Books Ireland (Feb. 1987).
Patrick Crotty, review of W. J. McCormack, ed., Ferocious Humanism: An Anthology of Irish Poetry, in Times Literary Supplement ( 2 June 2000), pp.4-5.
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Notes
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing
(Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 3, selects Lux Aeterna, ‘Aifreann
na Marbh’/’Mass for the Dead, ‘Graduale’ [903-04].
BIOG, p.935 [as supra; omits mention of first marriage].
For further reviews by Seán Ó hEigeartaigh and others, see Alan Titley, An tÚrscéal Gaeilge (1991);
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)