Dan Stokes, pictured right,
has lived all his adult life
in Sandymount, since
about 1964. He liked it since the
childhood days when his family
used to visit the Strand, and enjoys
living here with his gracious
wife and de facto agent, Edna.

He is modest about his achievements,
yet he has many. He is a
serious poet and playwright with
numerous publications in Ireland,
the U.K. and the U.S.A.,
and has had plays produced in
London, Bath, Edinburgh and
Dublin.

Some years ago, the late Con
Houlihan wrote that from Danʼs
demeanor he ʻcould be a bus
driver or professional footballer
or gunfighter on vacationʼ and
that impression still applies.

No one in his family or anyone
he knew as a child was interested
in writing, but when he was 13
or 14, he heard a couple of older
boys talking about writing and
realised that was what he wanted
to do with his life.

His family moved to New York,
and in high school there one of
the teachers entered some of his
poems for a national competition.
His poem, ʻVigilʼ, won first
place. He came back to Ireland
and went to Trinity College.

The first poets who made an
impression on him were A.E.
Housman and Rudyard Kipling.
“Kipling was a technical, metrical
genius, while Housman was
articulating what was on every
young personʼs mind– dying
young, fears of death, falling in
and out of love.”

ʻGrudges to Bearʼ, his first collection,
came out around 1978
and was launched in Dublin.
Later he published ʻInterestʼ, and
ʻBuying a Sweaterʼ was brought
out by the now-legendary Keepsake
Press in London.

He taught English, history, and
Latin for about 10 years, but in
1980 he relinquished his post to
become a full-time writer.

During this time and since he
entered and won some poetry
competitions and had plays produced
in Ireland, London, Bath,
and New York. Like many Irish
playwrights, Stokesʼs rejection
by the Abbey and the Gate was
followed by acceptance and success
in London.

Other plays include ʻTis said
he comes from Elamʼ, ʻFly
By Nightʼ, and ʻIn Lieu of the
Horseʼ– a reworking of the Trojan
horse story.

His career really began with
two very successful one-man
shows which he wrote and acted
in. “I wrote these one-man shows
intending to get an actor to do
it, and the director was looking
around and said why donʼt you
try it yourself?” So he did.
The first, ʻMetered Heartbeats
ʼ, was the story of a mythical
writerʼs life, using poems
from many different authors. It
toured throughout Ireland, including
a visit to the Belfast Festival,
and the U.S. Dan created a
life and looked at each aspect of
it through a different poem.
His second one-man show,
ʻGod, Men, and God Knows
Whatʼ, based on the writings of
the Irish poet James Stephens,
was performed at the Edinburgh
Festival in 1981, winning a
Fringe First, and consequently
Dan was invited to tour with it
several times to theatres and universities
in the U.S.

It was also produced on BBC1
Northern Ireland television. “Poetry
is more important to me than
plays,” Dan says, “but far harder
to write. You could write a three
act play in the same time as a 30
line poem.”

Dan has always been concerned
with communicating the
enjoyment of literature to young
people and in the eighties and
nineties he was artistic director
of a travelling theatre company,
appropriately named ʻThe Globetrotters
ʼ, which brought lively
productions of Shakespeare classics
right into the classrooms and
halls of schools all over Ireland.
“At that time there was a definite
curriculum and we had a
captive audience– but in the mid
90s the curriculum was changed
by the Department of Education
and since then there are no designated
texts. We travelled all over
the country, no place too small,
and it was hard work keeping a
cast– some actors would throw
up the job for the sake even of a
television ad.”

Dan has also read his own
work in schools under the aegis
of the ʻWriters in Schoolsʼ
scheme and has written several
plays in French for teenagers. In
fact, he writes a new one every
year. Edna was a French teacher
and had an idea years ago that
they should do a play in French.
“We played in various theatres
in Dublin, including the old Oscar
in Sandymount, now a Sikh
gudjarat. Chris OʼNeill auditioned
actors and I directed.

“We did Moliereʼs ʻLe Bourgeois
Gentilhommeʼ among
others. It gradually got too expensive
for pupils and teachers,
bussing from Galway, and the
theatre costs, so we were asked
if we could do something we
could bring to the schools. Since
then, every year I devise a play
in simple French and we take it
to secondary schools all over the
country.”

But there are many strings to
Danʼs bow, and he is also a keen
sportsman. He played basketball
for Marian College and rugby
for Monkstown, and still pulls
on the boots for the over 35s in
Monkstown Rugby Club.

He trains daily in the gym and
keeps fit, and says that for him
rugby is the relaxation, poetry is
the work. A main theme in his
life and work is “finding out for
yourself what you really want–
you can start enjoying yourself
when you know what you want.
Finding this out is perhaps the
hardest thing you can do.”

Every day Dan goes into his
study to work– from about 9.30
am to 7.30 pm. “You canʼt wait
for inspiration– you are only
fooling yourself if you donʼt sit
there. Anything could inspire
me– might be an idea, or an image.
Or a want.”

I asked Dan what advice would
he give to new writers starting
out. He was asked this while
travelling around Westmeath
with Martin OʼDirean, a famous
Irish poet. Martin jumped in and
said “if you throw your bread on
the water, it will come back to
you.” Dan would say the same.
Dan is, not surprisingly, currently
working on a new collection.