{"id":14357,"date":"2022-10-08T16:04:25","date_gmt":"2022-10-08T15:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/?p=14357"},"modified":"2022-10-08T16:04:25","modified_gmt":"2022-10-08T15:04:25","slug":"niall-mcdevitt-1967-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/2022\/10\/08\/niall-mcdevitt-1967-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Niall McDevitt (1967-2022)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The London-based Irish Poet, Art-Activist, Musician and Psychogeographer, Niall McDeviit died at his home in North Kensington, London on Thursday September 29th 2022 aged fifty-five, after a short battle with cancer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Born in Limerick in February 1967, McDevitt moved to Dublin as a child. There he was educated at the Jesuit-run Belvedere College secondary school, and read English literature at University College Dublin. Both institutions were also attended by James Joyce, of whom McDevitt was a lifelong devotee.<\/p>\n

Joyce inspired McDevitt to create his popular London Bloomsday Literary Walk, which over the years attracted hundreds of followers to West London.<\/p>\n

Niall was a deep thinker, gifted scholar, poet, actor, writer and art-activist. To some he became almost an urban shaman.<\/p>\n

As a young poet, not long in London, he became the \u2018Resident Poet Laureate\u2019 at the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith from 1995 until 2009. There he enthralled audiences with unforgettable live poetry performances.<\/p>\n

Niall was one of the most distinguished poets on London’s avant-garde literary scene. Author of three poetry collections, b\/w<\/em><\/a><\/span> ((Waterloo Press, 2010), Porterloo<\/em><\/a><\/span> (International Times, 2013), and Firing Slits – Jerusalem Colportage<\/em><\/a><\/span> (New River Press, 2016).<\/p>\n

McDevitt\u2019s poetry was by turns, solemn and sage, and savagely witty with melancholic romance. He was lauded by fellow poets, including Iain Sinclair, Patti Smith, John Cooper Clark, and Grey Gowrie.<\/p>\n

James Byrne described McDevitt as, \u2018arguably the most significant London-Irish poet since W.B. Yeats\u2019.<\/p>\n

Jeremy Reed, an older contemporary who influenced McDevitt\u2019s early style, described him as \u2018a luminous custodian of the great poetic mysteries.\u2019<\/p>\n

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Niall was also one of London\u2019s most admired and lauded \u2018psychgeographers<\/a><\/span>\u2019, leading literary walks across London, with a particular emphasis on the revolutionary poets who called London home, including Arthur Rimbaud<\/span>, Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare, as well as Irish writers such as James Joyce<\/span>, Oscar Wilde and W.B Yeats<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

He recently led a five-part London Literary Walk on his fellow Poet and Visionary, William Blake. Niall himself was regarded as one of the foremost Blakeans of his generation.<\/p>\n

Over lockdown<\/span> Dublin filmmaker S\u00e9 Merry Doyle collaborated closely with Niall to make the films \u2018The Battle Of Blythe Road\u2019, which won won the \u2018Special Award\u2019 at \u2018The Portobello Film Festival\u2019 (2021) is about W.B. Yeats time practising magic at in an \u2018Isis Temple\u2019 in West London.<\/p>\n