Over 280 people gathered at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin on Nov. 4, 2025, to mark the fifth anniversary of renowned poet Derek Mahon’s death.
“A Celebration of Derek Mahon” was curated by Peter Fallon of The Gallery Press, Ireland’s pre-eminent publisher of poetry and drama, in association with the University of Notre Dame Dublin and RTÉ Radio 1.
The event was opened by Clíona Ní Ríordáin, the Thomas J. and Kathleen M. O’Donnell Chair in Irish Language and Literature at the University of Notre Dame and a faculty fellow of the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies. Ní Ríordáin spoke of the close collaboration between Mahon and Fallon, poet and editor.
“The presence of Derek Mahon in The Gallery catalog was the result of what Peter Fallon called ‘an act of retrieval,’” Ní Ríordáin said, “one of the subtle revolutions in Gallery's existence designed to return published Irish poets to their own country.” Without this return, we may not have seen Antarctica, Harbour Lights, Life on Earth.
Guest readers shared memories of Mahon and read a selection of his poems. They were fellow poets Paul Muldoon, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, and Katy Mahon, Derek’s daughter; novelist John Banville; and actor Stephen Rea.
The audience was treated to rare recordings of Mahon reading earlier work “Everything Is Going to Be All Right" and “Kinsale.” Recordings of “A Fox in Grafton St.” and “Quarantine,” made near the end of Mahon’s life in 2020 and during the COVID-19 pandemic, carried a timbre of the historic moment in which they were written.
Paul Muldoon lent his rich voice to “A True Note” and “Dawn at St. Patrick’s,” later returning with “A Garage in Co. Cork” and “A Quiet Spot.”
Katy Mahon read her father’s poems “Nostalgias,” “Heraclitus on Rivers,” “Antarctica,” and “Beyond the Pale.” In a touching moment, she apologized if she needed to pause at any point. “It's quite close to my heart,” she said of the poem that includes a stanza written for her.
Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin read “The Attic,” “The Globe in North Carolina” (her favorite), “Montaigne,” and “A Country Kitchen,” dedicated to Seamus Heaney on his 70th birthday. “It's such a pleasure to listen to the poems in many voices, and what strikes me is how many of them are connected with his friendships,” Ní Chuilleanáin remarked of the dedicatees of so many Mahon poems.
John Banville read “Leaves,” “Sand,” “The Woods,” and “A Disused Shed in Co. Wexford,” of which Banville writes in the Irish Times, “Derek Mahon wrote the greatest single Irish poem since the death of Yeats.”
Stephen Rea, who has previously brought voice to Mahon’s work on stage, delivered powerful moments, reading “Afterlives,” “Northern Star,” and, to close the evening, “How to Live (after Horace)” and “Trump Time.” “We love the poets because they give us [actors] something to say,” he quipped.
Excerpts from Peter Fallon’s forthcoming memoir, The Kitchen Sink, were woven between poems, from which he shared anecdotes of his thirty-plus-year career as editor, publisher, agent, and friend of Derek Mahon. “I was fully aware by then that he was the author of poems possessed of a classical grace and grandeur, often embodying an exactly contemporary, even urgent matter,” said Fallon, reflecting on the early days of their collaboration.
These memories provided an intimate through-line, recounting humorous moments, like Mahon turning down the Queen’s Medal (“Not really my thing,” he said), constant communication, and the occasional disagreement that underscored the creative partnership. For the audience, Fallon’s memories brought some illumination to the private, reclusive Mahon they so admire, and so miss.
Fallon concluded the evening on a poignant note:
How lucky we were to be alive when he was among us. How lucky we were to be witnesses to that golden age of Irish poetry with Derek [Mahon], and two of the dedicatees of poems we've heard, Ciaran Carson and Seamus Heaney, and two of the people beside me here, Paul Muldoon and Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin. You see, it all comes together.
The Gallery Press and the University of Notre Dame in Dublin collaborate on a number of events including poetry readings, launches, lectures, and student engagement initiatives. “A Celebration of Derek Mahon” will be broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1 at 6 pm GMT on December 26, 2025, St. Stephen's Day. The full event recording will be available subsequently on Notre Dame Dublin's YouTube channel.
Poetry Credit:
From The Poems (1961-2020) by Derek Mahon, published by The Gallery Press: “A True Note,” “Dawn at St. Patrick’s," “A Garage in Co. Cork,” “A Quiet Spot,” “Nostalgias,” “Heraclitus on Rivers,” “Antarctica,” “Beyond the Pale,” “The Attic,” “The Globe in North Carolina,” “Montaigne,” “A Country Kitchen," “Leaves," “Sand,” “The Woods,” “A Disused Shed in Co. Wexford," “Afterlives,” “Northern Star,” “Trump Time"
From The Adaptations (1975-2020) by Derek Mahon, published by The Gallery Press: "How to Live"
Originally published by at dublin.nd.edu on December 08, 2025.