Bio

Matt Mooney was born, a farmers son, in Kilchreest, south Galway in 1943. He later settled in Listowel, Co Kerry, where he has lived for many years. A graduate of UCG and a post graduate of UCC, Mooney was a vocational teacher in Listowel until his retirement in 2002.

‘Steering by the Stars’ was published in 2021,.‘Éalú’, Matt Mooney’s Irish language poetry collection, was also published in 2021. His first - ‘Droving’ - was published in 2003, followed by ‘Falling Apples’ (2010), ‘Earth to Earth’ (2015) and ‘The Singing Woods’ (2017). 

He was the winner of The Pádraig Liath Ó Conchubhair Irish Language Poetry Award 2018, and a prizewinner in the Ballybunion Arts Festival 2022 . His poems have appeared in: The Blue Nib, The Stony Thursday Poetry Book, Vox Galvia, The Mill Valley Literary Review, The Amaravati Poetic Prism Multi-Lingual Anthology, Feasta, West 47, The Applicant, The Kerryman, Kerry’s Eye, The Irish Independent, The Galway Review and its Anthology, Galway Advertiser (Ó Pheann go Pár), The Connaught Tribune, Pendemic, Live Encounters and in Musings During a Time of Pandemic, a World Anthology. His work has been translated into Spanish and published in the literary magazines Cardenal and Palabrerías in Mexico.

He has been a feature reader in The White House (Limerick), Ó Bhéal (Cork), On the Nail (Limerick), West Cork Literary Festival, Baffle, Féile Raifteirí, Éigse Dara Beag , The Forge in Gort and has featured online in Cultivating Voices (USA) and Not the time to be Silent (Limerick).

Mooney is also a Deputy editor, proof reader and poetry reviewer with the The Galway Review Literary Magazine.