FAREWELL TO ICONIC LITERARY FIGURE
Enniscorthy’s Anthony Cronin regarded as a master of poetry
HUNDREDS of mourners turned out on Saturday to pay their final respects to noted poet and writer Anthony Cronin.
The writer, who was a native of Enniscorthy, died last Tuesday at his home in Dublin four days after his 88th birthday.
Anthony Cronin was described as ‘an iconic figure in Irish letters, an impassioned and incisive commentator on politics and culture, one of the most influential of Irish writers during a long and varied life’.
TRIBUTES have flooded in for Enniscorthy-born writer and poet Anthony Cronin who died last week.
Anthony who was born in Enniscorthy on December 23, 1928, died last Tuesday at his Ranelagh home just four days after his 88th birthday.
Poet, novelist, memoirist, biographer, critic and cultural activist, Anthony Cronin was described by the Arts Council as ‘an iconic figure in Irish letters, an impassioned and incisive commentator on politics and culture, one of the most influential of Irish writers during a long and varied life’.
His father was a reporter on the Enniscorthy Echo and his mother was a homemaker. His parents also ran a small shop, which his mother managed.
Cronin first took an interest in poetry when sent as a boarder to Blackrock College. Having joined the chess club, which got him off the school grounds unsupervised, he picked up a copy of The Century’s Poetry in a local newsagent.
Cronin was already a noted poet and critic while still a student in UCD. While there he was very active in the Literary and Historical Society (L&H).
After college he was called to the bar but he declined. He went on to publish 14 volumes of poetry, acclaimed biographies of Flann O’Brien and Samuel Beckett, the novels The Life of Riley and Identity Papers, a number of books of essays, and the classic memoir of literary Dublin in the mid 20th century, Dead As Doornails. He was editor of The Bell magazine when that journal occupied a central place in Irish letters, and was also literary editor of the London journal, Time and Tide.
His Irish Times column, ‘Viewpoint’, published between 1973 and 1980, was typical of his journalism, dealing with political, literary and social topics with a style as distinctive as it was engaging. And, as time has shown, he was often prophetic.
He was also hired by the then Taoiseach Charlie Haughey as a cultural adviser having met and become friends with him in UCD.
He often defended Haughey in print, saying he was the first head of government to make the arts an integral part of state policy. Speaking before his death about the role he said: ‘Going into the taoiseach’s office as an adviser, I saw the opportunity of doing things and bringing things into being: the [Irish] Museum of Modern Art, the Heritage Council, Aosdána in particular.’
Speaking last Wednesday after his death, Sheila Pratschke, Chair of the Arts Council said: ‘Tony Cronin was a rare example of the public intellectual in Irish life — committed, fearless, rigorous in his thought, and unashamedly forthright in his advocacy of what he thought right and good. Appalled by the penury faced by so many senior Irish artists in their later years, he persuaded then Taoiseach Charles Haughey, to whom he was cultural advisor, to establish Aosdána, an independent affiliation of artists which recognises significant achievement by artists in all disciplines.
‘He served from its inception on the Toscaireacht, the steering committee, of the organisation. He was conferred with the high honour of Saoi by that body in 1993, joining among other luminaries Samuel Beckett, Seamus Heaney, Sean Ó Faoláín, Mary Lavin, Tony O’Malley and Brian Friel.
‘Unfailingly courteous and generous in his dealings with others, and particularly kind to emerging younger writers, Cronin held himself to the highest standard in his literary production. The poems were ever and always at the heart of his work, being unashamedly modernist in their rigour, sometimes bleak, but always forgiving and always passionately humane.’
‘He believed in a Republic worthy of the Irish people, and was unstinting in his contributions to the public life of a country that often infuriated him but never lost either his love or his allegiance.
In a statement released on Wednesday afternoon, the Toscaireacht of Aosdána said: ‘Anthony Cronin was a poet. That is how he wanted to be remembered primarily. But as the moving spirit in the founda- tion of Aosdána, he was also one of the most significant figures in Ireland’s cultural history. ‘He raised the public standing of the arts and, most especially, of the artist, to a level that no one of his generation would have thought possible. In part this was due to his understanding of history - in the 19th century a poet of genius like James Clarence Mangan lived and died beyond the notice of the state. In part it was due to his indignation that another poet of genius, ‘Patrick Kavanagh, as well as many of Kavanagh’s contemporaries in other arts, such as the composer Frederick May, were reduced to poverty and treated as little better than outlaws. As Anthony Cronin dies there are many artists today in
Ireland who can live and work in their native land because of what he did for them.’
President Michael D. Higgins also paid homage to Mr Cronin.
‘I have learned with great sorrow of the passing of Anthony Cronin, poet, novelist, biographer of Samuel Beckett, essayist and critic.
‘A master of the long poem and faithful to the scholarly tradition of understanding the poem, the poet and history, Anthony Cronin made an immense contribution to Irish life and sensibility.’
Mr Cronin also worked as a columnist with the Sunday Independent and on Sunday the paper printed his final selection of poetry as a mark of respect.
Cormac Bourke, Sunday Independent editor said: ‘Anthony Cronin was a poet and philosopher; he was an intellectual powerhouse of the 20th century, One of the most influential culture figures in modern Ireland, he was a regular contributor to the Sunday Independent across three decades, including his popular weekly poetry column.’
Arts Minister Heather Humphries commended Cronin’s ‘cultural activism’ in Ireland and his representation of artists.
‘Anthony loomed large in Ireland’s cultural life, both as a prolific poet and an acclaimed author.’
Fellow Enniscorthy man and writer Colm Toibin said Cronin was ‘wonderful company’.
‘Anthony Cronin was a brilliant thinker and critic and wonderful company. His analysis of the world around him was sharp and acute. His journalism was rational, thoughtful; his style as a broadcaster could be wry and funny, as were his novels and his classic memoir Dead as Doornails. Before he was anything else, however, he was a poet.
‘His poetry too could have a rational edge, using logic and statement of fact, coming to tentative conclusions as though everything stated had to be tested and proved.
‘It was clear in his poetry that he loved reason until you went to one of his readings when he showed that he loved language just as much. He allowed his sense of the magic and mystery of words to rub against his refusal to deal in twilights or easy emotions or what is called the natural world.
‘Anthony Cronin was an Enniscorthy man who made himself into a Dubliner, although in later years he came to view his origins with fondness.
Toibin visited Cronin at his home shortly before his death.
‘He lived his old age with grace and style. Sitting by the fire in his house in Ranelagh a few days before Christmas, he offered me a most acute analysis of Donald Trump’s victory. He took an immense pleasure in being alive. He lived the life of the mind, following the news with care and close attention.
He was so totally alive and involved in the moment, and so generous and daring in the way he lived, that it is impossible to believe his sparkling presence in the world has now come to an end.’
Anthony was married to Thérèse Campbell, from whom he separated in the mid-1980s. She died in 1999. They had two daughters, Iseult and Sarah; Iseult was killed in a road accident in Spain. He is survived by his second wife, author Anne Haverty, daughter Sarah, sonin-law Owen, grandchildren Marcus, Clara and Nicholas, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, his extended family and a wide circle of friends and admirers.
His remains were removed from his home on Saturday to the Church of the Sacred Heart, Donnybrook followed by cremation at the Victorian Chapel, Harold’s Cross.