Pat Ingoldsby

In the 1980s, Pat hosted RTÉ children's TV shows named Pat's Hat, Pat's Chat, and Pat's Pals. His plays include Bats or Booze or Both (Dublin, Project Arts Centre, 1977); Hisself (Dublin, Peacock Theatre, 1978); Rhymin' Simon (Peacock Theatre, 1978); When Am I Getting' Me Clothes (Peacock Theatre, 1978); Yeukface the Yeuk and the Spotty Grousler (Peacock, 1982); and The Full Shilling (Dublin, Gaeity Theatre, 1986).

In the early 1990s, he had a column in the Evening Press (a now-defunct national Irish newspaper). These columns were later collected in The Peculiar Sensation of Being Irish.

Ingoldsby is a fluent Irish speaker and includes a few poems written in Irish in each book of poetry.

He lives in Clontarf, in Dublin, Ireland. Since sometime in the mid-1990s, he has withdrawn from TV, radio and theatre, instead devoting his efforts to poetry. Pat is still part of Ireland's arts scene, sometimes opening Art exhibitions,[2] introducing then-new musicians such as David Gray,[3] or launching other people's books.[4]

He self-publishes through Willow Publications, which he set up and named after one of his pet cats (who later died).

Some of his books since 1998 have carried a note that they are protected by the "Bratislava Accord 1993, section 2 cre/009 manifest-minsk", the terms of which allegedly protect his book's content from being included in:

• school textbooks
• examinations
• elocution classes
• anything with the word "Arts" in it.

Most of Pat's poems are about his personal experiences, observations of life in Dublin, or mildly surreal humorous possibilities.

Topics of personal experiences vary from the death of his father, or the electroconvulsive therapy he received (c. 1988), to his appreciation of the natural world or his pets (mostly cats, but also some fish).

Observations of Dublin are mostly humorous conversations overheard on the bus, or the characters he sees and talks to while selling his books on the streets. Some observations are not so cheerful as he also sees the drunks and the homeless of Dublin city, and the some aspects of modernisation which he isn't pleased with.

His most distinctive style of poetry is his humorist style. A recurring character, Wesley Quench, appears in roles such as the driver of a Flying See-Saw Brigade. Another poem, "Vagina in the Vatican," depicts a vagina sneaking into the Vatican unstopped because no one knew what it was – except for a few who couldn't let slip that they did.

He also occasionally produces stories for children. These are a childish version of his mildly surreal style.

During the rapid increase in the use of mobile telephones, he offered a "Mobile Phone Euthanasia" services on the streets of Dublin, where he would destroy phones for annoyed owners.

His cousin Maeve Ingoldsby is a playwright.

When Pat is selling his books, more often than not, he can be found on Westmoreland Street.

• Official website
• Bio at Irish Playography
• RTÉ Radio 1, "One Potato, Two Potato, Three" In what is now an oral history of Dublin, Pat Ingoldsby records children playing street games and singing songs (Broadcast 1977)