Kevin O’Rourke Launched ‘My Korea’ in the Irish Residence

Over 70 people gathered for the launch of Fr. Kevin O’Rourke’s new book ‘My Korea – 40 years without a horsehair hat ‘hosted by the Ambassador of Ireland jointly with the Seoul literary Society. Fr. Kevin O’Rourke’s new book includes wonderful collection of memories, stories and poetry inspired by his long experience in Korea. The book is available on Amazon and makes great reading for folks at home who want to know what Korea is like and where it has come from.

Kevin O’Rourke, Professor Emeritus of English Literature at Kyunghee University, is an Irish priest who has lived in Korea since 1964. Kevin O’Rourke was the first foreign national to receive a PhD in Korean Literature from a Korean University. Much of his career has been spent translating works of Korean literature, both classical and contemporary, into English and he won the Korean National Literature Prize in 1989 for his translations of Korean poetry.

His published works include: Tilting the Jar, Spilling the Moon (Poems from Goryeo, Joseon and Contemporary Korea); Poems of a Wanderer (Selected Poems of So Chongju); Mirrored Minds, a Thousand Years of Korean Verse (Anthology of Classical and Modern Korean Poetry); Looking for the Cow, a comprehensive anthology of modern Korean peoms; The Book of Korean Poetry (Poems of Silla and Goryo), as well as the Square, a novel by Choi In-hun and Our Twisted Hero, a novel by Yi Mun-yol.