The Honest Ulsterman was a long running Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

 literary magazine

Literary magazine

A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry and essays along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letters...

 that was established by James Simmons in 1968

1968 in poetry

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* The Belfast Group, a grouping of poets in Belfast, Northern Ireland, which was started in 1963 in poetry, lapsed in 1966 when founder Philip Hobsbaum left for Glasgow, is reconstituted this year by...

. It was then edited for twenty years by Frank Ormsby

Frank Ormsby

Francis Arthur Ormsby is a Northern Irish poet.He was educated at St Michael's College, Enniskillen and Queen's University Belfast. He was editor of The Honest Ulsterman from 1969 to 1989, and has also edited the Poetry Ireland Review. Since 1976 he has been Head of English at the Royal Belfast...

.

Editors of The Honest Ulsterman were: issues 1-11 and 14-19: James Simmons; issue 12 was guest-edited by Michael Stephens

Michael Stephens

Michael James Stephens in Auckland. He was a New Zealand cricketer who played for the Auckland Aces and the Northern Districts Knights in the 1990s and he also played for Counties-Manukau in the Hawke Cup. Nowdadys he works for St Joseph's School in Pukekohe.-References:...

; Michael Foley guest-edited issue 13, and co-edited with Frank Ormsby issues 20-34: Ormsby edited 35-74 on his own, and 75-86 with Robert Johnstone; Johnstone edited 87-95, with co-editors Ruth Hooley (later Ruth Carr) up to 93, and Tom Clyde

Tom Clyde

Thomas Knox Clyde was an American Major League Baseball pitcher. He played for the Philadelphia Athletics during the season.-References:...

 for issues 94 and 95: Tom Clyde edited 96-110 with associate editors Ruth Carr and, from 99-110, Frankie Sewell. The final issue, 111, was edited by Ruth Carr and Tom Clyde.

The magazine was published, with decreasing frequency, from May 1968 until Summer 2003 and so was one of the longest-lived and most widely-read little magazines of its type in 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...

, and probably in the English-speaking world.

From the start it presented Northern Irish writers alongside poets, prose-writers and critics from around the world. (Early issues included work by Stevie Smith

Stevie Smith

Florence Margaret Smith, known as Stevie Smith was an English poet and novelist.-Life:Stevie Smith, born Florence Margaret Smith in Kingston upon Hull, was the second daughter of Ethel and Charles Smith. Contemporary Women Poets...

 and Tony Harrison

Tony Harrison

Tony Harrison is an English poet and playwright. He is noted for controversial works such as the poem V and Fram, as well as his versions of ancient Greek tragedies, including the Oresteia and Hecuba...

, as well as by Gavin Ewart

Gavin Ewart

Gavin Buchanan Ewart was a British poet best known for contributing to Geoffrey Grigson's New Verse at the age of seventeen.-Life:...

, who continued to contribute until his death. It went on to include work from all parts of Ireland and Britain, the USA and Canada, Australia and many other places.) Its beginning coincided with the emergence of a remarkable generation of poets, including Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer. He lives in Dublin. Heaney has received the Nobel Prize in Literature , the Golden Wreath of Poetry , T. S. Eliot Prize and two Whitbread prizes...

, Michael Longley

Michael Longley

Michael Longley, CBE is a Northern Irish poet from Belfast.-Life and career:Longley was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and subsequently read Classics at Trinity College, Dublin, where he edited Icarus...

 and Derek Mahon, but it also provided an early, often the first, platform for subsequent waves of writers such as Paul Muldoon

Paul Muldoon

Paul Muldoon is an Irish poet. He has published over thirty collections and won a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the T. S. Eliot Prize. He held the post of Oxford Professor of Poetry from 1999 - 2004. At Princeton University he is both the Howard G. B. Clark ’21 Professor in the Humanities and...

, Ciaran Carson

Ciaran Carson

Ciaran Gerard Carson is a Belfast, Northern Ireland-born poet and novelist.-Early years:Ciaran Carson was born in Belfast into an Irish-speaking family...

, Medbh McGuckian

Medbh McGuckian

Medbh McGuckian is a poet from Northern Ireland.-Biography:She was born the third of six children as Maeve McCaughan to Hugh and Margaret McCaughan in North Belfast. Her father was a school headmaster and her mother an influential art and music enthusiast...

,[Si Law] and numerous others.

A distinctive part of every issue from number 29 (July/August 1971) until the end was the "Business Section" by "Jude the Obscure", a free-ranging look at culture high and low, Irish, French and American. Another notable contributor was John Morrow, whose comic prose pieces developed into satirical novels and short-story collections. Another aspect was literature in translation, particularly from Russian, Spanish, French and Chinese. Issues 82-86 included a section edited by John Wilson Foster, "Critical Forum". Frankie Sewell (associate editor, issues 99-110) oversaw a section in the Irish language

Irish language

Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...

.

A number of leading artists designed covers and provided artwork. These included Colin Middleton

Colin Middleton

Colin Middleton MBE was an Irish artist and surrealist.Middleton was born in 1910 in Belfast. He trained at Belfast College of Art, he was heavily influenced by the work of Vincent van Gogh. He regarded himself as the only surrealist working in Ireland in the 1930s.His work first appeared at the...

, John Middleton, Jeff Morgan

Jeff Morgan

Jeff Morgan is an American conservationist. He is best known for founding Global Heritage Fund , a non-profit organization that works internationally to preserve cultural heritage sites in the developing world. Since 2002, Morgan has served as GHF's Executive Director.-Personal life:Morgan was born...

 and Ross Wilson

Ross Wilson (artist)

Ross Wilson is an artist from Northern Ireland. He studied Fine Art at the University of Ulster and at the Chelsea College of Art and Design and has been a visiting speaker at Harvard University and the University of Oxford...

.

A series of over 30 poetry pamphlets were published along with the magazine itself, including work by Heaney, Mahon, Muldoon, McGuckian, Foley, Ormsby, Carson, Johnstone, Ewart, Tom Paulin

Tom Paulin

Thomas Neilson Paulin is a Northern Irish poet and critic of film, music and literature. He lives in England, where he is the GM Young Lecturer in English Literature at Hertford College, Oxford.- Life and work :...

, Carol Rumens

Carol Rumens

Carol Rumens FRSL is a British poet.-Life:Carol Rumens was born in Forest Hill, South London. She won a scholarship to grammar school and later studied Philosophy at London University, but left before completing her degree...

, Iain Crichton Smith

Iain Crichton Smith

Iain Crichton Smith was a Scottish man of letters, writing in both English and Scottish Gaelic, and a prolific author in both languages...

, Sean O'Brien

Sean O'Brien (writer)

Sean O'Brien is a British poet, critic, playwright. Prizes he has garnered include the Eric Gregory Award , the Somerset Maugham Award , the Cholmondeley Award , the Forward Poetry Prize and the T. S. Eliot Prize...

, Geoffrey Squires

Geoffrey Squires

Geoffrey Squires is an Irish poet who works in what might loosely be termed the modernist tradition.-Early life:While born in Derry, he grew up in County Donegal, Republic of Ireland...

, Harry Clifton

Harry Clifton

Harry Clifton is an Irish poet. He was born in Dublin, but has lived in Africa and Asia, as well as more recently in continental Europe...

, Tom Matthews and others.

Leading libraries, particularly in Ireland, should have complete runs of the magazine. These would include the British Library

British Library

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...

, the National Library of Ireland

National Library of Ireland

The National Library of Ireland is Ireland's national library located in Dublin, in a building designed by Thomas Newenham Deane. The Minister for Arts, Sport & Tourism is the member of the Irish Government responsible for the library....

, the Linenhall Library, Belfast, Belfast Central Library

Belfast Central Library

Belfast Central Library is a public library in Royal Avenue, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Opened in 1888, it was one of the first major public library buildings in Ireland....

, the New York Public Library

New York Public Library

The New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...

, and numerous university libraries which maintain an Irish section.