Daniel Corkery
1878 - 1964
Daniel Corkery was a short story writer, teacher, academic and senator.
While teaching at the Christian Brothers National School Corkery founded, on the model of the Abbey Theatre, the Cork Dramatic Society, for which he was to write plays on Irish mythological and historical themes between 1909 and 1920. They had their headquarters at 'An Dún' in Father Matthew Street, Cork. Corkery's belief in a native Irish culture, issuing almost naturally from soil and locale, informed his collection of stories A Munster Twilight. In his book The Hidden Ireland (1927), he put forward the case for the wealth and depth of the native Irish literary tradition. From 1931 onwards he taught as Professor of English at University College Cork, a post he held until his retirement in 1947. In 1938 he was elected to Seanad Éireann as a Fianna Fáil Senator.