Prof. Eoin Devereux

Biography

Professor Eoin Devereux

A Cultural Sociologist and a Creative Writer, Professor Eoin Devereux teaches at the University of Limerick, Ireland. He is also an Adjunct Professor in Contemporary Culture (focused on fandom and discourse) in the Department of Art, Music and Culture at the University of Jyvasklya, Finland. He is Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Popular Music and Popular Culture at the University of Limerick.

He is the author of numerous books and articles on media and music which have been adopted in classrooms all over the world. His book Understanding The Media (2014) is now in its third edition. In recent years he has published extensively on David Bowie, Joy Division and Morrissey with his colleagues Dr. Martin J. Power and Dr. Aileen Dillane. His work in the area of Media Sociology continues to focus on media constructions of poverty, homelessness and social welfare. He is Co-Editor for the Rowman & Littlefield Book Series on Popular Music(s) Matter and Discourse, Power and Society.

He co-writes and co-performs The Cedarwood Chronicles with Gavin Friday as part of Gavin Friday Presents on the U2 radio station U2 X-Radio. The show is broadcast monthly in the USA and Canada on the Sirius Platform.

In 2022 Eoin is working with the avant garde group The Virgin Prunes. He presents Virgin Prunes Talk which examines each of the group's album releases.

He tweets as @profdevereux

Here's Eoin's RTE Brainstorm on David Bowie and Ireland published in October 2021.
https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2021/1012/1253180-david-bowie-ireland-tipperary-jack-b-yeats-samuel-be...

A lifelong advocate for Interdisciplinary approaches to teaching and research, Eoin teaches on the MA in Creative Writing, convening the module Creative Writers in The Community. He is also the course director for the MA in Youth, Community and Social Regeneration at UL.

A music fan, DJ and experimental musician, Eoin's detailed essay 'Waltzing Back: The Cranberries 1989-1993' is featured in the Box Set Version of The Cranberries debut album 'Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?' released by Universal Music (London) in October 2018. In 2020 his essay on the band's second album 'No Need To Argue' accompanied its re-release. He has also curated sleeve notes for The Cranberries albums 'Something Else' and 'In The End'. His essay 'Still Remembering' was published as the sleeve notes for The Cranberries album 'Remembering Dolores' on April 23rd 2022 for Record Store Day.

Eoin was one of a number of sleeve note contributors to the 2019 re-issue of The Radiator's 'Ghostown' album, produced by Toni Visconti. His essay 'Singing As Violence' accompanies the 2019 release of Slow Riot's album 'G.A.D' released by Straight Lines Are Fine. In 2020, he featured in the Boomtown Rats documentary 'Citizens of Boomtown' (dir by Billy McGrath) along with others including Bono, Sting, Sinead O'Connor, Joseph O'Connor, Niall Stokes.

As part of the group Frigid Stars (with Professor David Meagher, Sons of Southern Ulster) Eoin has collaborated with the singer/artist/actor Gavin Friday to record a new version of The Fall's song 'Slates, Slags etc'. The recording was featured as part of the day long symposium on The Fall on Nov 7th 2019. He has also performed with his group Section 17 at events focused on men and mental health. His current experimental music project is a collaboration with Aidan McNamara (Section 17).

CREATIVE WRITING:

A member of the Limerick Writers' Co-Operative WRITEPACE, Eoin has taught on the UL Frank McCourt Summer School in Creative Writing at Ireland House, NYU and at UL. He has also co-directed with UL Winter School in Creative Writing with Professor Sarah Moore-Fitzgerald held in Doolin, County Clare in 2018, 2019 and 2022. He was Producer for the 2022 UL Creative Writing Festival.

In December 2019, RTE Radio 1's Poetry Programme broadcast his poem 'Panthera' which deals with the Housing Crisis. His poem 'The Bodhi Tree' was published by Hennessy New Irish Writing in the Irish Times in June 2017 and was subsequently shortlisted for a Hennessy Award for Emerging Poetry in 2018.

His short story 'Making A Stand' was published by the Irish Times in December 2017. Eoin's flash fiction story about dementia - 'Mrs Flood' - was broadcast by RTE Radio 1's The Bookshow in December, 2014 and subsequently published in 100 Words, 100 Books by RTE/The O'Brien Press.

Eoin's memoir piece called 'Three Bicycles' was broadcast by RTE's Sunday Miscellany, RTE Radio 1 on June 10th 2018.

His creative writing has been published in numerous journals including The Irish Times; Janus Literary Magazine; The Stony Thursday Book, edited by Martin Dyar; Southwords; The Ogham Stone; The Poetry Bus; Boyne Berries; Number Eleven; The Bohemyth; The Old Limerick Journal; The HCE Review and The Galway Review.

He wrote the introduction to John Liddy's major poem Arias of Consolation, published in 2021. His poem 'Remnants' will be published in Issue 10 of the Poetry Bus Magazine in July 2022.

Eoin is currently a mentor on the Irish Arts Council Funded Walls of Limerick Creative Writing project.

In April 2022, he curated the poetry broadsheet APRIL IS THE CRUELLEST MONTH for National Poetry Day. The broadsheet includes poetry by Donal Ryan, Denise Chaila, Willzee and Emily Cullen.

MEDIA & OTHER ACTIVITIES:

Eoin has been interviewed in numerous media settings including RTE Radio 1; RTE 1 Television, Newstalk, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio Ulster, Indie 103 Los Angeles, Reuters, The Irish Times and Irish Independent. In addition, he has contributed to a variety of panels on social and cultural themes including at the Electric Picnic Music Festival, Ireland and at the Institute for Contemporary Arts in London.

He has convened three public interviews with Gavin Friday (ex - Virgin Prunes) at the Dublin David Bowie Festival, at the Dalkey Book Festival and at the Dun Laoghaire Vinyl Festival.

In 2014, Eoin co-organised the Limerick City of Culture music legacy project The Pigtown Fling with sonic artist Dr. John Samuel Greenwood (LIT) and Noel Hogan of The Cranberries. In 2020, Eoin presented a public interview broadcast across The Cranberries social media channels with Noel Hogan, Mike Hogan and Fergal Lawler of The Cranberries to discuss the making of their second album No Need To Argue. He also hosted a public interview with Noel Hogan at the Dun Laoghaire Vinyl Festival on the making of the final Cranberries record In The End.

A full list of his books, journal articles, book chapters and other publications can be found elsewhere on this site.