Thomas Kinsella was born in Inchicore on May 4, 1928, and was a pupil at the Model School, which he revisited just a short time before his death in 2021 at age 93. He received the Freedom of the City of Dublin in 2007.
Model School Inchicore, is one of Kinsella’s poems where he imaginatively re-enters the land of his childhood to explore his human journey from innocence to knowledge. Below a short extract where he recalls time out of class playing in the school yard.
When Autumn came
and the big chestnut leaves fell
all over the playground
we piled them in heaps between the wall
and the tree trunks and the boys ran races
jumping over the heaps
and tumbled into them shouting
His critical reviews in InternationalLiterary Press, include:
“Probably the most accomplished, fluent, and ambitious Irish poet of the younger generation”
“Technical virtuosity and the profound originality of his subject matter set him apart from his contemporaries.”
“It’s great quality is the modesty and precision of its seriousness.”
“He is among the true poets, not only ofIreland but among all who write in English in our day.”