Monk Gibbon
Encyclopedia
William Monk Gibbon was an Irish poet and prolific author, known as "The Grand Old Man of Irish Letters". His collection of over twenty volumes of poetry, autobiography, travel and criticism are kept at Queen's University Belfast. He also wrote many published novels, and has been characterised as "self-regarding and prickly".
clergyman, and from 1900 vicar of St. Nahi's Church
, Dundrum
.http://www.eiretek.org/chapters/books/ball1-6/Ball2/ball2.2.htm. His mother, Isabella Agnes Meredith, was a daughter of William Rice Meredith of Dublin, the brother of John Walsingham Cooke Meredith
. Monk was a nephew of The Rt. Hon. Richard Edmund Meredith
and a first cousin of Carew Arthur Meredith. Monk's uncle, John, inherited the Gibbon estates of Sleedagh House, County Wexford
, and The Parks in Neston, Cheshire
, which came to them via the Monk family for whom he was named.
and Keble College, Oxford
, but after only one term he volunteered for the army, serving as an officer in France
during the First World War until invalided out in 1915. He became an avid pacifist after his experiences of war, and left Ireland
to teach English in Switzerland
. He also taught in England before returning to Ireland, not retiring until he was in his eighties.
As a British Officer on leave in Ireland, he was involved in the Easter Rising
of 1916. His book Inglorious Soldier gives a first-hand, and one of the most detailed accounts of the shooting of the pacifist Francis Sheehy-Skeffington
. His papers present lively and intimate accounts of the famous Irish writers whom he knew personally, such as William Butler Yeats
, George Moore (novelist)
, Edith Anna Somerville
and Katharine Tynan
.
At his father's church, Lily Yeats, sister of W. B. Yeats, was a parishioner.http://irishartsreview.com/html/features/yeats/feature_yeats.htm. There was also a family relationship: Gibbon and the Yeats family were cousins. There was no love lost between the poets Gibbon and Yeats, however; and the biography Gibbon wrote was rather hostile. Yeats in return said of Gibbon: "Monk Gibbon is one of the three people in Dublin whom I dislike... Because he is argumentative!" In 1963, Gibbon collaborated in the editing and publication of Michael Farrell's posthumous novel Thy Tear's Might Cease.
and Mabel Sophia Spender, a daughter of Edward Spender of Bath, Somerset. They were the parents of six children. Mrs Gibbon's father, Edward Spender, was a strong supporter of the Women's Suffrage
movement in which his sister, the novelist Emily Spender played a leading role as a member of the executive committee of the Central Committee of the National Society for Women's Suffrage
. Edward Spender was a cousin of the diarist Henry Crabb Robinson
, and a brother-in-law of the novelist Lillian Spender
and the liberal politician William Saunders
, with whom he founded the Central News Agency (London)
. Mrs Gibbon's mother was a first cousin of John Alfred Spender
, uncle of the poet Sir Stephen Spender
.
The Gibbons' home, Tara Hall, at Sandymount
, County Dublin
, was a literary centre and afternoon tea parties there often ran into the night. Frequent visitors there included Irish writers such as Padraic Colum
, Ulick O'Connor
and Austin Clarke. Gibbon always wrote in bed and often wandered down to the sea front in his pyjamas to collect driftwood. He was a keen cyclist all his life and could still be found riding his bicycle around Sandycove in his late eighties.
Family
Monk Gibbon was the son of the Rev. Canon William Monk Gibbon (1864-1935), a Church of Ireland
Church of Ireland
The Church of Ireland is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. The church operates in all parts of Ireland and is the second largest religious body on the island after the Roman Catholic Church...
clergyman, and from 1900 vicar of St. Nahi's Church
St. Nahi's Church
St. Nahi is an 18th-century church in Dundrum, Dublin, Ireland.-History:The name Taney derives from Tigh Naithi meaning the house or place of Nahi, and who may also be associated with Tobarnea, a seashore well that near Blackrock...
, Dundrum
Dundrum
Dundrum is the name of several places:in Ireland:*Dundrum, Dublin, a suburb of Dublin city.**Dundrum Town Centre, a shopping centre*Dundrum, County Tipperary** the Dundrum meteorite of 1865, which fell in Munster, Ireland...
.http://www.eiretek.org/chapters/books/ball1-6/Ball2/ball2.2.htm. His mother, Isabella Agnes Meredith, was a daughter of William Rice Meredith of Dublin, the brother of John Walsingham Cooke Meredith
John Walsingham Cooke Meredith
John Walsingham Cooke Meredith J.P., an Anglo-Irish-Canadian office holder and businessman, best remembered as the father of the Eight London Merediths.-Background:...
. Monk was a nephew of The Rt. Hon. Richard Edmund Meredith
Richard Edmund Meredith
The Rt. Hon. Richard Edmund Meredith PC, QC , was the Master of the Rolls in Ireland, a Privy Councillor, Judge of the Supreme Court of Ireland and Judicial Commissioner of the Irish Land Commission.-Career:...
and a first cousin of Carew Arthur Meredith. Monk's uncle, John, inherited the Gibbon estates of Sleedagh House, County Wexford
County Wexford
County Wexford is a county in Ireland. It is part of the South-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Wexford. In pre-Norman times it was part of the Kingdom of Uí Cheinnselaig, whose capital was at Ferns. Wexford County Council is the local...
, and The Parks in Neston, Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
, which came to them via the Monk family for whom he was named.
Career
He was educated at St. Columba's College, DublinSt. Columba's College, Dublin
St Columba's College is a co-educational boarding school founded in 1843 located in Whitechurch, Dublin, Ireland. Among the founders of the college are Edwin Richard W. W. Quin, Lord Adare , the Right Hon. William Monsell , Dr...
and Keble College, Oxford
Keble College, Oxford
Keble College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its main buildings are on Parks Road, opposite the University Museum and the University Parks. The college is bordered to the north by Keble Road, to the south by Museum Road, and to the west by Blackhall...
, but after only one term he volunteered for the army, serving as an officer in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
during the First World War until invalided out in 1915. He became an avid pacifist after his experiences of war, and left Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
to teach English in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. He also taught in England before returning to Ireland, not retiring until he was in his eighties.
As a British Officer on leave in Ireland, he was involved in the Easter Rising
Easter Rising
The Easter Rising was an insurrection staged in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by Irish republicans with the aims of ending British rule in Ireland and establishing the Irish Republic at a time when the British Empire was heavily engaged in the First World War...
of 1916. His book Inglorious Soldier gives a first-hand, and one of the most detailed accounts of the shooting of the pacifist Francis Sheehy-Skeffington
Francis Sheehy-Skeffington
Francis Skeffington from Bailieborough, County Cavan, was an Irish suffragist, pacifist and writer. He was a friend and schoolmate of James Joyce, Oliver St John Gogarty, Tom Kettle, and Conor Cruise O'Brien's father, Frank O'Brien...
. His papers present lively and intimate accounts of the famous Irish writers whom he knew personally, such as William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms...
, George Moore (novelist)
George Moore (novelist)
George Augustus Moore was an Irish novelist, short-story writer, poet, art critic, memoirist and dramatist. Moore came from a Roman Catholic landed family who lived at Moore Hall in Carra, County Mayo. He originally wanted to be a painter, and studied art in Paris during the 1870s...
, Edith Anna Somerville
Edith Anna Somerville
Edith Anna Œnone Somerville was an Irish novelist who habitually signed herself as "E. Œ. Somerville". She wrote in collaboration with her cousin "Martin Ross" under the pseudonym "Somerville and Ross"...
and Katharine Tynan
Katharine Tynan
Katharine Tynan was an Irish-born writer, known mainly for her novels and poetry. After her marriage in 1898 to the writer and barrister Henry Albert Hinkson she usually wrote under the name Katharine Tynan Hinkson...
.
At his father's church, Lily Yeats, sister of W. B. Yeats, was a parishioner.http://irishartsreview.com/html/features/yeats/feature_yeats.htm. There was also a family relationship: Gibbon and the Yeats family were cousins. There was no love lost between the poets Gibbon and Yeats, however; and the biography Gibbon wrote was rather hostile. Yeats in return said of Gibbon: "Monk Gibbon is one of the three people in Dublin whom I dislike... Because he is argumentative!" In 1963, Gibbon collaborated in the editing and publication of Michael Farrell's posthumous novel Thy Tear's Might Cease.
Private life
In 1928, he married Mabel Dingwall, daughter of Walter Molyneux Dingwall of BonchurchBonchurch
Bonchurch is a small village to the East of Ventnor, on the southern part of theIsle of Wight, England. It is situated on The Undercliff, which itself is subject to regular landslips. A large section of the settlement is found in Upper Bonchurch, halfway up St Boniface Down on the main A3055 road...
and Mabel Sophia Spender, a daughter of Edward Spender of Bath, Somerset. They were the parents of six children. Mrs Gibbon's father, Edward Spender, was a strong supporter of the Women's Suffrage
Women's suffrage
Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...
movement in which his sister, the novelist Emily Spender played a leading role as a member of the executive committee of the Central Committee of the National Society for Women's Suffrage
Women's suffrage
Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...
. Edward Spender was a cousin of the diarist Henry Crabb Robinson
Henry Crabb Robinson
Henry Crabb Robinson , diarist, was born in Bury St. Edmunds, England.He was articled to an attorney in Colchester. Between 1800 and 1805 he studied at various places in Germany, and became acquainted with nearly all the great men of letters there, including Goethe, Schiller, Johann Gottfried...
, and a brother-in-law of the novelist Lillian Spender
Lillian Spender
Lillian Spender was an English novelist.-Works:*Brothers-in-Law *Her Own Fault *Parted Lives *Jocelyn's Mistake *Mark Eylmer's Revenge *Both in the Wrong...
and the liberal politician William Saunders
William Saunders (politician)
William Saunders was a British newspaper publisher and Liberal Party politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1885 and 1895....
, with whom he founded the Central News Agency (London)
Central News Agency (London)
The Central News Agency was a news distribution service founded as Central Press in 1863 by William Saunders and his brother-in-law, Edward Spender...
. Mrs Gibbon's mother was a first cousin of John Alfred Spender
John Alfred Spender
John Alfred Spender was a British journalist, newspaper editor, and author. He is best known for serving as the editor of the London newspaper the Westminster Gazette from 1896 until 1922.-Life:...
, uncle of the poet Sir Stephen Spender
Stephen Spender
Sir Stephen Harold Spender CBE was an English poet, novelist and essayist who concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle in his work...
.
The Gibbons' home, Tara Hall, at Sandymount
Sandymount
Sandymount is a coastal seaside suburb in Dublin 4 on the Southside of Dublin in Ireland. It is in the Dublin South East Dáil constituency and the East Pembroke Ward. It was once part of Pembroke Township, which took its name from the fact that this area was part of the estate of the Earl of...
, County Dublin
County Dublin
County Dublin is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Dublin Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the city of Dublin which is the capital of Ireland. County Dublin was one of the first of the parts of Ireland to be shired by King John of England following the...
, was a literary centre and afternoon tea parties there often ran into the night. Frequent visitors there included Irish writers such as Padraic Colum
Padraic Colum
Padraic Colum was an Irish poet, novelist, dramatist, biographer, playwright, children's author and collector of folklore. He was one of the leading figures of the Celtic Revival.-Early life:...
, Ulick O'Connor
Ulick O'Connor
Ulick O'Connor is an Irish writer, historian and critic.-Early life:Born in Rathgar, County Dublin in 1928, O'Connor attended St. Mary's College, Rathmines and later University College Dublin, where he studied law and philosophy, becoming known as a keen sporting participant, especially in boxing,...
and Austin Clarke. Gibbon always wrote in bed and often wandered down to the sea front in his pyjamas to collect driftwood. He was a keen cyclist all his life and could still be found riding his bicycle around Sandycove in his late eighties.
Works
- The Tremulous String (1926) Limited Edition 250 hand printed copies
- The Branch of Hawthorn Tree (1927)
- The Seals (1935) autobiography
- The Living Torch (1937) poems by AE, editor
- Mount Ida (1948)
- This Insubstantial Pageant (1951)
- The Masterpiece and the Man: Yeats as I Knew Him (1959) biography
- The Climate of Love (1961)
- Inglorious Soldier (1968) memoir
- The Brahms Waltz (1970)
- The Velvet Bow (1972)
- The Pupil (1981)