Seán Ó Tuama, the Irish scholar, poet and critic, has died at the age of 80. The Cork-born writer was probably best known for his 1981 bilingual poetry anthology An Duanaire - Poems of the Dispossessed, in collaboration with Thomas Kinsella. He was former chairman of Bord na Gaeilge and was a member of the Arts Council from 1973 to 1981.
He spent most of his academic life at UCC, becoming associate professor in 1968 and full professor in 1982 until he retired in 1990. He was also a visiting professor at Harvard and Oxford, and he lectured extensively in North America.
His publications include three collections of poetry and five plays, as well as literary criticism and literary history.
He produced Nuabhéarsaíocht in 1950, a modern poetry anthology which introduced new writers such as Seán Ó Ríordáin to a wide audience. His 1960 work An Grá in Amhráin na nDaoine was credited with influencing a new generation of poets, including Gabriel Rosenstock and Liam Ó Muirthile.
He was described yesterday as "a world-class scholar" by Dr Pádraigín Riggs, senior lecturer at the department of Modern Irish in UCC.
"He was many-faceted," she said. "He was a poet, a scholar, a dramatist and a distinguished literary critic. He was very inspirational. He was a very committed language activist and an absolutely passionate believer in the revival of the Irish language."
She said Ó Tuama believed that the Irish language represented "everything that was noble and best in the Irish people".
Prof Máirtín Ó Murchú, senior professor at the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies, described his former colleague as "a very accomplished dramatist and poet, a literary scholar of outstanding merit".
He said Ó Tuama was "a great language loyalist and all his life worked for the maintenance and promotion of the Irish language".
Arts Council chairwoman Olive Braiden praised Ó Tuama's commitment to the development of the arts. "As a poet himself, he had an empathy for artists and a determination to support them."
