Happy 80th birthday, Eddie Linden, poet, pacifist and Catholic atheist
John Cooney, who is writing a biography of the Scots-Irish poet and editor of Aquarius, profiles this complex and charismatic character – communist, Catholic and homosexual
Wed, May 13, 2015, 16:30
May 13th will see an eclectic gathering of thinkers and literati assemble in London’s Mayfair to pay homage to the Scottish-born poet and retired poetry editor, Eddie Linden, on his 80th birthday. When all the speeches and toasts have been made by distinguished guests from all nationalities and strata of society, the highlight of the evening will be a recital by Eddie of his most celebrated poem, City of Razors, with its chilling snapshot of violence on a Saturday night as witnessed by frightened women in the tenements of the Gorbals district of a Glasgow riven by sectarian antagonism between Catholics and Protestants; a city where, as Catholics come from the evening confessional, Protestants become bellicose in cobbled streets littered with broken milk-bottles:
A woman roars from an upper window
‘They’re at it again, Maggie!
Five stiches in our Tommy’s face, Lizzie!
http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/happy-80th-birthday-eddie-linden-poet-pacifist-and-catholic-atheist-1.2211208