Michael Longley

Fran Brearton (Queen's University Belfast)

Ed. by Ian Campbell Ross, Trinity College Dublin
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.4: Irish Writing and Culture, 400-present.
Vol. editors: Anne Markey (Dublin City University), Ian Campbell Ross (Trinity College Dublin), Eoghan Smith (Carlow College), Sinéad Sturgeon (Queen's University Belfast)

Dates

Born 27 Jul 1939
Activity 1959-ongoing

Places

Born in Northern Ireland
Active in Ireland, Republic of (Eire); Northern Ireland

Activities

Primary

Poet

Resources

Longley's Works

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Michael Longley was born in Belfast on 27 July 1939, the eldest (by half an hour) of twin boys. His parents, Major Richard Longley and Constance Longley, both from England, met and married after the First World War, in which Richard Longley served in the London-Scottish regiment, and they moved permanently to Belfast in 1927. Longley thus grew up in an English household in Ireland, a more unusual situation than its opposite. His autobiographical writings explore some of the contradictions and tensions in his childhood environment, and the importance to him of being a twin. In his short memoir

Tuppenny Stung

(1994) he describes his childhood relationship with his brother as one in which he felt “completely fulfilled. Being a lover, a husband, a father has since enabled me to draw…

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2402 words

Citation: Brearton, Fran. "Michael Longley". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 October 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5518, accessed 23 November 2024.]

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