Matthew Sweeney

Matthew Sweeney
Born(1952-10-06)6 October 1952
Lifford, County Donegal, Ireland
Died5 August 2018(2018-08-05) (aged 65)
Cork University Hospital, Ireland[1]
Resting placeClonmany New Cemetery, County Donegal[2]
OccupationPoet
Alma materUniversity College Dublin[3]
Polytechnic of North London[4]
University of Freiburg[4]
GenrePoetry
Literary movement"Alternative Realism"[5]
"Imagistic Narrative"[3]
Notable worksHorse Music
SpouseRosemary Barber[3]
PartnerMary Noonan[2]
ChildrenNico (daughter)[2]
Malvin (son)[2]

Matthew Gerard Sweeney (6 October 1952 – 5 August 2018)[6] was an Irish poet.[4] His work has been translated into Dutch, Italian, Hebrew, Japanese, Latvian, Mexican Spanish, Romanian, Slovakian and German.[3]

According to the poet Gerard Smyth: "I always sensed that in the first instance [Sweeney] regarded himself as a European rather than an Irish poet – and rightly so: like the German Georg Trakl whom he admired he apprehended the world in a way that challenged our perceptions and commanded our attention."[4] Sweeney's work has been considered "barely touched by the mainstream of English writing" and more so by the German writers Kleist, Büchner, Kafka, Grass and Böll, as well as the aforementioned Trakl.[5] According to Poetry International Web, Sweeney would be among the top five most famous Irish poets on the international scene.[7]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference rip was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference buckets_of_imagination was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference guardian_obituary was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference irish_times_dies was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference contemporary_writers was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Wood, Heloise (6 August 2018). "'Wonderful' poet Sweeney dies aged 66". The Bookseller. Archived from the original on 7 August 2018. Retrieved 6 August 2018.
  7. ^ "Matthew Sweeney (1952–2018)". Poetry International Web. Archived from the original on 10 August 2018.