Devaney, Patrick 1936-

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DEVANEY, Patrick 1936-

PERSONAL:

Born September 2, 1936, in County Roscommon, Ireland; naturalized U.S. citizen; son of Charles Luke (a farmer and rate collector) and Winifred Kate (a homemaker) Devaney; married Cheryl Leak (a homemaker), June 10, 1972; children: Clare, Catherine, Deirdre, Aileen, Conor. Ethnicity: "Irish." Education: Attended National University of Ireland, University College, Galway, 1954-57; City College of the City University of New York, B.A. (cum laude), 1968. Politics: "Liberal inclination." Religion: Roman Catholic. Hobbies and other interests: Observing wildlife, swimming, cycling, reading, theater, films.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Virginia, County Cavan, Ireland.

CAREER:

Fischbach & Moore, Inc., New York, NY, electrical draftsman, 1958-69; County Kildare Vocational Education Committee, County Kildare, Ireland, post-primary teacher, 1969-2002; writer, 2002—.

MEMBER:

Phi Beta Kappa.

WRITINGS:

TEENAGE FICTION

Rua the Red Grouse, Irish Peatland Conservation Council (Dublin, Ireland), 1987.

The Stranger and the Pooka, Mentor Books (Dublin, Ireland), 1996.

The Psychic Edge, Mentor Books (Dublin, Ireland), 2000.

Tribal Scars, Mentor Books (Dublin, Ireland), 2004.

FOR ADULTS

Searching for Updraughts (poetry), Cardinal Press (Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland), 1997.

Through the Gate of Ivory (novel), Lilliput Press (Dublin, Ireland), 2003, Dufour Editions (Chester Springs, PA), 2003.

Swan Pendant (poetry), Justin Nelson Productions, 2005.

SIDELIGHTS:

Patrick Devaney told CA: "My interest in writing started while I was a boarder at Summerhill College in Sligo, where I composed verse for the amusement of classmates as well as my first published poems, 'Night in the Country' and 'Winter.' These were inspired by my delight in nature and by reading poets such as Wordsworth and Yeats. I continued to write occasional poems while attending Galway University and working in New York, where reading the poetry of Robert Frost was a particular pleasure. In New York I developed an interest in Irish myth and legend and attempted to write a humorous one-act play and a tragedy, 'Oona Bhawn.' My first published novel, Rua the Red Grouse, resulted from my interest in nature and conservation. Teaching provided the material for other teenage novels.

"My primary motivation in writing is a desire to preserve those moments of magic one experiences in nature, to highlight the threat to our environment and to transform the painful aspects of existence into something beautiful and enduring. I have also striven to explore the nature of Irish identity, which in the past has been bedeviled by colonial domination and religious division, and to depict the new multicultural Ireland that is now coming into being. In this regard, my latest novel for teenagers, Tribal Scars, has a hero whose father is a West African revolutionary and whose mother is an Irish eco-warrior."