James Simmons, "Ballycastle"

James Simmons (1933–2001) was born in Derry, Northern Ireland, and educated at Leeds University. He taught for five years at the Friends School in Northern Ireland and for three at Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria, before taking up his post as lecturer in drama and Anglo-Irish literature at the New University of Ulster, which he held for a number of years, during which he formed part of the "Belfast Group" and founded the influential periodical The Honest Ulsterman. In addition to poetry he wrote a critical study of Sean O'Casey (1983) and edited Ten Irish Poets (1974). His poetry collections include Late but in Earnest (1967), In the Wilderness and Other Poems (1969), Energy to Burn (1971), The Long Summer Still to Come (1973), West Strand Visions (1974), Judy Garland and the Cold War (1976), The Selected James Simmons (1978), Constantly Singing (1980), From the Irish (1985), and Poems 1956-1986 (1986).

"Ballycastle".