Pat Ingoldsby
Patrick Ingoldsby was an Irish poet and television presenter. He hosted children's television shows, wrote plays for the stage and for radio, published books of short stories and was a newspaper columnist. From the mid-1990s, he withdrew from the mass media and was most widely known for his collections of poetry, and his selling of them on the streets of Dublin.
Early life
Ingoldsby was born in Malahide, Dublin on 25 August 1942. He survived childhood polio and suffered its after-effects throughout his life. The playwright Maeve Ingoldsby was his second cousin.Career
In the 1980s, Ingoldsby hosted RTÉ children's television shows named Pat's Hat, Pat's Chat, and Pat's Pals. His plays include Bats or Booze or Both ; Hisself ; Rhymin' Simon ; When Am I Getting' Me Clothes ; Yeukface the Yeuk and the Spotty Grousler ; and The Full Shilling. In the early 1990s, he had a column in the Evening Press. These columns were later collected in The Peculiar Sensation of Being Irish. Ingoldsby was a fluent Irish speaker and included a few poems written in Irish in each book of poetry. He lived in Clontarf in Dublin. Sometime in the mid-1990s, he withdrew from TV, radio and theatre, instead devoting his efforts to poetry. He nevertheless remained part of Ireland's arts scene, sometimes opening art exhibitions, introducing then-new musicians such as David Gray or launching other people's books. He self-published through Willow Publications, which he set up in 1994. Some of his books, from 1998, carried a note that they were protected by the "Bratislava Accord 1993, section 2 cre/009 manifest-minsk", the terms of which allegedly protected his books' content from being included in "school textbooks", "examinations", "elocution classes" and "anything with the word 'Arts' in it". During the rapid increase in the use of mobile phones, he offered a "Mobile Phone Euthanasia" services on the streets of Dublin, where he would destroy phones for owners. Ingoldsby retired from selling his books on the streets of Dublin in 2015.In March 2022, the Museum of Literature Ireland hosted a video installation to mark the release of Ingoldsby's latest anthology, In Dublin They Really Tell You Things — Pat Ingoldsby, Selected Poems 1986–2021.
Death
Ingoldsby died on 1 March 2025, at a nursing home in Clontarf, Dublin at the age of 82.Influences
Most of Ingoldsby's poems were about his personal experiences, observations of life in Dublin, or mildly surreal humorous possibilities. Topics of personal experiences vary from the death of his father, or the electroconvulsive therapy he received, to his appreciation of the natural world or his pets. Observations of Dublin are mostly humorous conversations overheard on the bus, or the characters he saw and talked to while selling his books on the streets. Some observations were not so cheerful as he also saw the drunks and the homeless of Dublin City, and the some aspects of modernisation which he wasn't pleased with. His most distinctive style of poetry was his humourist style. A recurring character, Wesley Quench, appears in roles such as the driver of a Flying See-Saw Brigade. Another poem, "Vagina in the Vatican," depicted a vagina sneaking into the Vatican unstopped because no one knew what it was – except for a few who couldn't let slip that they did. He also occasionally produced stories for children. These are a childish version of his mildly surreal style.Poetry
You've Just Finished Reading This TitleRhyme Doesn't with ReasonUp the Leg of Your JacketWelcome to My Head Salty Water Scandal Sisters- How Was It for You Doctor? Poems So Fresh and So New...Yahoo! If You Don't Tell Anybody I Won't See Liz She Spins Half a Hug Beautiful Cracked Eyes The Blue E-Tee Wet! Do Lámh I Mo Bhrístí The Frenchwoman and the Sky Once Upon a 'Hide I'm Out Here Can I Get in the Bath? Once Upon a Wicked Eye I Thought You Died Years Ago Hitting Cows with a Banjo Pawmarks on My Poems Mise Mac Giolla In Dublin They Really Tell You Things Out Of The Blue... Pink, edited by Vivienne Baillie - 2025
Other works
For adults
Hisself When Am I Gettin' Me Clothes The Dark Days of Denny Lacey She Came Up from the Sea Fire Is Far Enough Liffey Ever Is The Peculiar Sensation of Being Irish Laugh Without Prejudice My Own Voice- ''Let Me into Your Ear''
For children
Zany Tales Rhymin' Simon Yeukface the Yeuk and the Spotty Grousler Tell Me a Story PatIngoldsby also wrote some episodes of Wanderly Wagon.