Mícheál Ua Ciarmhaic: Mícheál Ua Ciarmhaic (Michael Kirby), who has died aged 98, was a poet, painter, storyteller, folklorist and fisherman. He came to painting and writing late in life but over three decades amply made up for lost time.
His writing is noted for combining description with narrative, anecdote and poetry, and vividly depicting his native Ballinskelligs, its islands and birds, its fishing, husbandry, crafts, customs, migrant experience, history and folklore, in testimony to a vanishing way of life.
While he wrote mostly in Irish, two volumes of memoir in English, Skelligside (1990) and Skelligs Calling (2003), introduced his work to a wider audience. In these books he set out to present "a picture in story" of life in Ballinskelligs during the first half of the 20th century.
Reviews were positive. Aodhan Madden compared his writing to that of the Blasket writers, referring to it as "one of the last authentic expressions of the Gaelic tradition, artlessly fusing the worlds of flesh and spirit". Michael Viney in this newspaper wrote: "His intense feeling for the natural world speaks for sensibilities nourished and protected within the dwindling habitats of the Gaeltacht, wrapped as they are in sea and raw weather."
Born on May 31st, 1906 in Ballinskelligs, Co Kerry, he was the youngest of the seven children of John Kirby, fisherman and small farmer, and his wife, Mary (née Cremin). A native Irish speaker, he was educated bilingually at the local national school. As a boy he helped his father, who had a rowing boat for line and lobster fishing, and he later worked on trawlers.
But working long hours for low pay held little appeal, and he resolved to follow his siblings to the United States. His fare paid by one of his brothers, he left Ireland with high hopes for the future.
Unfortunately his arrival in the US coincided with the beginning of the Depression. Nevertheless he succeeded in getting work in New Haven, Connecticut, as a member of a maintenance crew in a railway freight yard.
But he was soon on a three-day week, and much of his spare time was spent at the Peabody Museum in Yale University, where he developed an interest in natural history - and kept warm.
After three years in the US he returned home to visit his dying father. Afterwards he decided to stay at home to look after his mother. Returning to the sea, he worked "long hours of slavery" on a trawler.
He also worked occasionally as a boatman and guide for visitors to the area. He remembered a German folklorist who made a field trip in the late 1930s, who had no time for Christianity and constantly mocked the idea of a Supreme Being. Her argument was that all was chance, and she took umbrage when he suggested that if chance was all-embracing it meant that everyone was a born chancer. In 1951 he opted for self-sufficiency.
"I divested myself of my oilskins on Ballinskelligs pier and vowed I'd be my own boss from then onwards. There is an old saying in Irish - Is olc an chearc ná scríobann di féin - 'It's a bad hen that can't scratch for herself'."
He made his living fishing, farming and doing maintenance work for the Board of Works.
In Dublin in the late 1970s at Club an Chonartha in Harcourt Street, he met the novelist and translator, Pádraig Ua Maoileoin, who encouraged him to write. His first book of poetry, Íochtar Trá, was published in 1985. Three volumes of poetry followed, Barra Taoide (1988), Ceol Madaí Rámha (1990) and Chuireas mo Líonta (1993) and three poems were included in the anthology, Fearann Pinn: filíocht 1900 go 1999 (2000).
Four volumes of prose contain observations and reflections on the sea, the land and nature. In the mid-1990s An Gúm commissioned him to write an adventure story for teenagers. The result was Iníon Keevack (1996), which won an Oireachtas prize.
He was also a painter, painting with acrylics on canvas. He did not exhibit his work in commercial galleries but sold it privately. Shortly before his death he completed a commission of eight paintings for a local inn. His last sale was to a German buyer.
His interest in nature is reflected in the fine garden he kept.
Widely read, he had a keen interest in news and current affairs and followed with interest the course of the recent Údarás na Gaeltachta elections.
He is survived by his wife, Peggy (née O'Sullivan); daughters, Anne, Martina and Margaret; and sons, Declan and Tim.
Mícheál Ua Ciarmhaic: born May 31st, 1906; died April 6th, 2005