Burns Library began acquiring the papers of Belfast-born poet and critic Gerald Dawe in 2000, yet until recently, only materials prior to that time were available to researchers. Now all materials acquired through 2018 have been processed, and the collection given a new overall arrangement to facilitate its use. Links to digitized audio recordings will soon be added to the archival finding aid.
A teacher as well as a writer and scholar, Dawe retired in 2017 from Trinity College, Dublin, where he had held an appointment since 1988. In 1996, he created the MPhil in Creative Writing at Trinity with fellow poet Brendan Kennelly, the first such program in Ireland. He became director of the Oscar Wilde Centre for Irish Writing in 1999 and was elected a Trinity Fellow in 2004. Dawe has held visiting scholar posts: at Pembroke College, Cambridge University (2016-2017); Villanova University (2009); and as Burns Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies at Boston College (2005).
Dawe’s papers document the full scope of his activities. Notebooks contain the successive drafts of his poetry and essays. Talks at literary events and broadcasts chart his public commentary on Irish letters, whereas his extensive correspondence with fellow writers, publishers, journalists, academics, and arts administrators present his private perspectives. Notable correspondents include Seamus Heaney, Michael Longley, and Thomas Kinsella, as well as Peter Fallon, Gerard Fanning, Derek Mahon, Frank McGuinness, and many others. Dawe’s teaching materials contain his notes for courses on Irish dramatists, novelists, and poets.