Liam Mulligan

Liam Mulligan was born and bred in Limerick. He retired in 1990 after forty years working in Irish Rail. A born traveller, he twice travelled the world, in 1992-3 he published Mulligan's Travels, a serialised account of his travels and also published short stories. In 1998, while studying for a B.A. in English Literature, he published Coddle and Tripe (1998, Stonebridge) along with his partner, poet Teri Murray.

A second collection, The Doppelgangers Carnival, was published in 2001. ((/1ns) 

 Personal memories from his life's experiences play a large part in Liam's poems in which the essential quality is serenity, his acceptance of the ups and downs of life with a stoic's outer skin. But that is a mere pose which hides the chameleon-like inner man, a mere boy, ready and willing to poke fun at the most sacred of cows. Particularly poignant is the sympathy Liam expressed for the mother of Frank McCourt, the Angela of Angela's Ashes, the childhood memoir later made into a film. Liam, who became involved in a long-running debate on local and national radio about Angela's situation, wittily addresses her situation in his poem Cinderella while the lightness of his wittiness shines through in the poem, Aunty Acid. 

POEM

(1)

CINDERELLA

Frank McCourt

blamed

Lam Griffin

for raking amongst

Angela's ashes,

exacting the

payment of rent.

/... (stanza one of two)

POEM

(2)

THE STEREOTYPERS

Editors stereotyped Sean South

as a conservative Catholic bigot

on the strength of two letters

to The Limerick Leader

/.... (stanza one of three)

POEM

(3)

RED BLOUSE, BLACK SKIRT

She sits curled up like a ball,

at rest now, reading.

Pages of the play

lie strewn around

her shoes

carelessly tossed aside.

/... (stanza one of three)

See also:-

Teri Murray