Patrick J. O’Connor is the author of eighteen books, including six volumes of poetry. He was awarded the Irish Historical Research Prize by the National University of Ireland in 1987 for Exploring Limerick’s Past and in 1989 for People Make Places. Accounted a “distinctive and distinguished geographer,” he has authored three major works on Ireland: Atlas of Irish Place-Names (2001), Fairs and Markets of Ireland: a cultural geography (2003), and Seeing through Counties: geography and identity in Ireland (2006). An avid reader of local landscapes and writer of local studies, he lives near Newcastle West, Co. Limerick. Patrick has latterly turned to memoir writing, and with two volumes already published, The New Houses (2009) and So long to Coolanoran (2011), he is planning a third. A Collected Poems is also contemplated. Patrick J. O’Connor best describes himself as geographer and poet (tíreolaí is file).
