Pat Ingoldsby

Pat Ingoldsby is an Irish poet. He has hosted children's TV shows, written plays for the stage and for radio, published books of short stories, and been a newspaper columnist. Since the mid-nineties, he has withdrawn from the mass media, and is most widely known for his books of poems, and his selling of them on the streets of Dublin. The poems in his books vary starkly between humorous and sad.

Pat's influences

Most of Pat's poems are about his personal experiences, observations of life in Dublin, or mildly surreal humorous possibilities.

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Topics of personal experiences vary from the death of his father, or the electroshock therapy he received (circa 1988), to his appreciation of the natural world or his pets.

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Observations of Dublin are mostly humorous conversations overheard on the bus, or the characters he sees and talks to while selling his books. Some observations are not so cheerful as he also sees the drunks and the homeless of Dublin city, and the some aspects of modernisation which he isn't pleased with.

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His most distinctive style of poetry is his humorist 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, depicts 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.

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He also occasionally produces stories for children. These are a childish version of his mildly surreal style.

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During the rapid increase in the use of mobile telephones, he offered a "Mobile Phone Euthanasia" services on the streets of Dublin, where he would destroy phones for annoyed owners.

Related Topics:
Mobile telephone - Euthanasia

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His sister Maeve Ingoldsby is a playwright.

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On a given day, if you're wondering if or where Pat is selling his books on the street, he recommends you ask a street sweeper if they've seen him.

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