August 6, 1927

Richard Murphy (August 6, 1927 to January 30, 2018) was an Irish poet. His path crossed that of Ludwig Wittgenstein's, indirectly.

Wittgenstein in 1948 left Cambridge seeking a more reclusive life, and he spent several months in Connemara, at a cottage named Rossroe. It was indeed solitary, a setting of astonishing beauty on the western coast of Ireland.There Ludwig Wittgenstein demonstrated his antipathy for vermin, and, in a story which may not be remembered correctly, asked a neighbor to shoot the dog looking after the neighbor's sheep, because it barked at night (frigthening off predators). Wittgenstein developed the habit of feeding birds at the kitchen window. Indeed the birds became so tame, some would eat from Wittgenstein's hand. That August of 1948 Wittgenstein departed, as he thought at the time, temporarily. He left money and instructions with a local to provide the birds with what they had come to depend on-food. As it happened the birds were quickly eaten by stray cats.

This story is told by By Nicholas Meihuizen in his book
Achieving Autobiographical Form: A Twentieth Century Perspective (2016).

The author mentions Richard Murphy, and notes parallels between the poet and the philosopher. Both sought a reclusive life of study and writing, both sought a precision in words. And "Both were fascinated with birds. Both administred care to fellow creatures with fatal consequences to those creatures...."

And both lived at Rossroe Cottage, Murphy a few years after Wittgenstein. In a 1955 volume of poetry: The Archeology of Love we find this account.  The Philosopher and the Birds" is subtitled: 'In Memory of Wittgenstein at Rossroe.'

'A solitary invalid in a fuschcia garden
Where time's rain eroded the root since Eden,
He became for a tenebrous epoch the stone.
....'

This is the final stanza

'His wisdom widens: he becomes worlds
Where thoughts are wings. But at Rossroe hordes
Of village cats have massacred his birds.'