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Oh, what happened to you? / Whatever happened to me?
What became of the people we used to be? [1]
I.
A few years ago, his was a name being whispered by the literati from Smock Alley to Swabia. But now there is only silence, leaving one to ask: whatever happened to Síomón Solomon? [2]
II.
Occasionally, however, the silence is broken by the sound of rumour ...
I've heard, for example, that a follow-up to Hölderlin’s Poltergeists (2020) [3] is in progress and has been given the working title of Imperfect Penances. The book is said to consist of a creative-critical translation of Georg Trakl and is possibly being published by Infinity Land Press [4], although as yet it does not appear on their list of forthcoming titles.
There is also talk of a pataphysical script - commended in its early form by the Druid Theatre Company - being secretly revised and promising to build upon the success of The Atonement of Lesley Ann, a short play staged in 2020 and described by Marina Carr as both lyrical and terrible [5].
And then there's the project which many of us have been long anticipating - a first collection of poems (working title My Grandfather's Demon). This will give a very special form of relief and pleasure when it finally appears, fulfilling the eternal promise.
III.
So, what has happened to Síomón Solomon?
Some say he has now taken on a cloak of anonymity and amuses himself trolling other writers ...
Some say that, having concerned himself for so long with ghosts and exceptional individuals, he has ironically ended up ghostwriting the everyday tales of very ordinary folk who dream of turning their memories into memoir ...
Some say he can be seen, in somewhat monstrous form, pacing by the edge of Quilca Lake, and staring at his reflection in the waters ... [6]
Notes
[1] Lyrics from 'Whatever Happened to You', by Highly Likely (sung by Tony Rivers), (BBC Records, 1973). This was the theme song for the TV series Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? (BBC1, 1973-74), written by Mike Hugg (music) and Ian La Frenais (lyrics). The TV show was created and written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, and starred Rodney Bewes (as Bob Ferris) and James Bolam (as Terry Collier), the latter of whom is pictured above wondering what became of Síomón Solomon.
[2] For readers unfamiliar with the name, Síomón Solomon (the nom de plume of Simon Thomas) is a poet, playwright, editor, translator and English lecturer based in Kells, County Meath, Ireland.
He holds inter-disciplinary academic qualifications in the humanities, including an MA in European Philosophy from the University of Warwick (1991) and an MA in Creative Writing (Boston, 1994). His PhD thesis (London, 2008) was a trilingual (and schizopoetic) study of Friedrich Hölderlin.
A former (somewhat shadowy) friend of Torpedo the Ark, there are several posts written by, about, or addressed to Síomón Solomon (under this and other names or guises).
[3] Síomón Solomon's first book, Hölderlin’s Poltergeists (Peter Lang, 2020), is primarily a creative adaptation (or remix) of Stephan Hermlin's 1970 audio play Scardanelli. It was slated for theatrical presentation by Queen Mary, University of London in 2023, but, as with the best laid plans of mice and avant-garde authors, this unfortunately didn't come to pass. There is a multiple-part series of posts on this hyper-niche book existing on the outer margins of traditional Hölderlin studies on TTA, and these can be accessed by clicking here.
[4] Founded in 2013 by Karolina Ursula Urbaniak and Martin Bladh, Infinity Land Press would make an ideal home for the work of Síomón Solomon, publishing as they do works which are (to quote from their website) "steeped in pathological obsessions, extreme desires, and private aesthetic visions" and "inoculated against the circulatory system of the established book market" (heaven forbid any of their authors should dream of a popular bestseller).
[5] Staged at Smock Alley Theatre as part of the Scene and Heard Festival (Dublin, 2020), The Atonement of Lesley Ann (dir. Larissa Brigatti) was billed as a true-crime ghost story and starred Misha Fitzgibbon, in a challenging role. As well as stumping up the €100 fee that went toward production costs, I also wrote a trio of posts on the work published on TTA: click here.
[6] There might be something in this: see the humorous post titled 'Limnophilia: Lakeside Tales of Monsters and Poets and a Little Blue Mind Theory' (10 Aug 2026).
