Richard Murphy

Richard Kerr Murphy (6 August 1927 – 30 January 2018) was an Anglo-Irish poet. Biography Early years Murphy was born to an Anglo-Irish family at Milford House, near the County Mayo–Galway border, in 1927. He spent much of his early childhood in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) where his father William Lindsay Murphy served in the Colonial Service and was active as mayor of Colombo, later becoming Governor General of the Bahamas (in succession to the Duke of Windsor). Murphy received his education at the King's School, Canterbury and Wellington College. He won a scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford at the age of 17, where he studied English under C.S. Lewis. He was later educated at the Sorbonne, and ran a school in Crete between 1953 and 1954. In his Archaeology of Love (1955), Murphy reflects on his experiences in England and Continental Europe. His childhood in Ireland was documented in the film The Other Irish Travellers, made by his niece Fiona Murphy.