Colm Breathnach

Colm Breathnach was born near Carrigrohane, County Cork. He worked as a terminologist with An Coiste Téarmaíochta, the Irish-language terminology committee, and later as a translator in Oireachtas na hÉireann. He was Assistant Chief Translator when he took early retirement in order to become a fulltime writer.

Colm has won the principal poetry prize four times in the Oireachtas literary competitions of Conradh na Gaeilge. With Dr Andrea Nic Thaidhg he translated the Günter Grass novel Katz und Maus into Irish. His first novel, a work of metafiction, appeared in 2009. Colm worked as assistant editor on two editions of the poetry journal Innti with Michael Davitt and was the first Irish-language editor of Scoth na hÉigse/Best of Irish Poetry. He published a poetry collection, Tírdhreacha (Landscapes) in 2015.

Colm has had poems translated into eight languages including a Rumanian edition of his collection An Fear Marbh (The Dead Man).