About Michael

Michael Pattwell was born in April 1945 in Clonakilty in West Cork.  He worked at various jobs and finally took up the study of law as a mature student, qualifying as a solicitor in 1976.  He worked in private practice and with Dublin and Cork County Councils until he was appointed a Judge of the District Court in 1990.   He retired in 2011.  His other interests include woodturning and the Scouting movement.  For 9 yearse writes a weekly column in The Evening Echo, a Cork-based daily evening newspaper.

Michael acquired a love for poetry whilst still in the primary school but didn’t write until into his late teens.  Marriage and young children then diverted his attention and he didn’t start writing again until January 1993 following the death of his father, when he wrote “The Clothesline”.  That poem is included in his first book, Flaghopping and Other Poems, published in 2010.  He has been writing since and has attended many workshops with eminent poets such as Mark Roper, Paula Meehan, Thomas McCarthy, Matthew Sweeney, Brian Turner and Leanne O’Sullivan, whose workshops at Anam Cara on the Beara Peninsula have been particular favourites

His second wife, Mairéad, died in 2013 after a relatively short illness. They had been together for 15 years, which, according to Michael, were extremely happy years.  The muse, he says, deserted him for a while but he has been dabbling with poetry and short stories again recently.

Many of Michael’s poems are inspired by his wide life experiences including his involvement with his family as well as an interest in nature and mythology.  He says he didn’t think he would ever publish but a cancer operation in July 2010 brought him face to face with the possibility of death and that changed his mind about a number of things.  The operation was totally successful and Michael is back doing all the things he likes doing best.