Desmond O'Grady was born in Limerick in 1935 and spent most of his childhood in West Clare and the Irish-speaking districts of County Kerry. His first book, Chords and Orchestrations, was published in 1956, and he has since published numerous collections of poems and translations. He was a friend of Ezra Pound for many years until the poet's death and the influence of that maestro is reflected in O'Grady's translations from a wide variety of poets in the classical and modern languages culminating in his publication of The Gododdin, a free verse version of the Middle Welsh heroic poem of Aneirin. He has been Poet in Residence at the American University at Cairo. The Gallery Press published The Headgear of the Tribe: new and selected poems in 1978.