By Pat Boran

The Invisible Prison

Poet Pat Boran’s best-selling humorous memoir of growing up in 1970s midlands Ireland.
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Memoir, Prose

Description

Subtitled Scenes from an Irish Childhood, Pat Boran’s bestselling prose memoir is an evocative and humorous portrait of small-town Ireland in the late 1960s and early 70s, made up of short self-contained scenes which combine to form a unique record of a time and a convincing portrait of a young mind coming to terms with the limits of received wisdom. Part memoir, part social history, part meditation on community itself, The Invisible Prison is, most of all, a celebration of the freedom, innocence and joys of childhood.

“Gentle… affectionate… good-humoured… heart-breaking…” — The Irish Times

“He writes with a poet’s sensibility… Each individual chapter feels like a short story in itself.” — Peter Sheridan, Books of the Year, Liveline, RTÉ Radio 1

“Resolutely amusing and emotionally resonant, Boran’s memoir captures all the excitement and natural curiosity of childhood… ” — Sunday Business Post

“Pat Boran’s autobiography, The Invisible Prison, makes the cut for its beautiful, poetic script reminding us what the essence of childhood is all about” — Des Kenny, Books of the Year, Sunday Independent


ISBN 978 1 906614 15 7 Paperback
Also available in Hardback
140 x 216 mm, 262 pp
Nov 2009, reissued 2018

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About The Author

Author

PAT BORAN is an Irish poet, editor and film maker. He was born in 1963 in Portlaoise, in the Irish midlands, and has long since lived in Dublin. One of the best known Irish poets of his generation, he was Writer-in-Residence with Dublin City Libraries, Dublin City University and the Western Education and Library Board in Fermanagh. He is the author of more than a dozen books of poetry and prose, most recently Then Again (Dedalus Press, 2019) and Waveforms: Bull Island Haiku (Orange Crate Books, 2016) with photographs by the author. The Statues of Emo Court (2021), Building the Ark (2022) and On a wave of Light (2022) are single-poem volumes, with photographs by the author. A Man Is Only As Good: A Pocket Selected Poems was published in 2017 by Orange Crate Books. Editions of his poetry have been published in Italian, Hungarian, Macedonian and Portuguese, with further works in progress. Pat Boran's non-fiction includes the popular writers' handbook The Portable Creative Writing Workshop (various editions) and A Short History of Dublin (Mercier Press). His humorous memoir The Invisible Prison: Scenes from an Irish Childhood, was published by Dedalus Press in 2009 and published in Italian as Un'Infanzia Irlandese in 2019 by Edizioni Kolibris. A former editor of Poetry Ireland Review and a former presenter of The Poetry Programme and The Enchanted Way on RTÉ Radio 1, Pat Boran has edited numerous anthologies of Irish poetry, among them Wingspan: A Dedalus Sampler (2006), Flowing, Still: Irish Poets on Irish Poetry (2009), The Bee-Loud Glade (2009), Shine On: Irish writers supporting those affected by mental ill health (2011), the 2014 Dublin One City, One Book choice If Ever You Go: A Map of Dublin in Poetry and Song (with co-editor Gerard Smyth) and, with co-editor Eugene O'Connell, The Deep Heart's Core: Irish Poets Revisit a Touchstone Poem (2017). During lockdown in Spring 2020 he edited the popular anthology, The Word Ark: A Pocket Book of Animal Poems, illustrated by Sicilian artist Gaetano Tranchino. Since 2020 he has made more than a dozen short poetry films which have shown at film and literary festivals all over the world. Pat Boran’s distinctions include The Patrick Kavanagh Award and the US-based Lawrence O'Shaughnessy Poetry Award. He is a member of Aosdána, the Irish affiliation of creative artists. (See also www.patboran.com)