Samuel Beckett

(13/04/1906 - 22/12/1922)

Samuel Beckett (April 13, 1906-December 22, 1989) was a writer, dramatist, theatre director, poet, and literary translator.

His tenuous connection with the local area comes in the form of a poem he wrote called Eneug I which features Parnell Bridge(Sally’s Bridge) located at the end of Clogher Road. The poem describes a journey down the Grand Canal from Portobello to Parnell Bridge and beyond to Kilmainham and Chapelizod.

“…

I trundle along rapidly now on my ruined feet

flush with the livid canal;

at Parnell Bridge a dying barge

carrying a cargo of nails and timber

rocks itself softly in the foaming cloister of the lock;

on the far bank a gang of down and outs would seem to be mending a beam.

Then for miles only wind

and the weals creeping alongside on the water

and the world opening up to the south

across a travesty of champaign to the mountains

and the stillborn evening turning a filthy green