'Staggering loss' - tributes pour in for renowned Irish poet Eavan Boland, who has died at 75

The Royal Academy has announced the death of the legendary poet in a statement on their Twitter account this evening.

"We are shocked to hear of the death of Hon. MRIA Eavan Boland and our thoughts are with her family RIP," the statement read.

"She was a pleasure to work with and is pictured below at the UN reading her poem about women's suffrage 'Our future will become the past of other women'."

She was a writer in residence at Trinity College and UCD and was a poet in residence at the National Maternity Hospital. She also lectured in Standford College since 1999.

Ms Boland was on the board of the Irish Arts Council and the International Writers Center at Washington University. She was also a member of the Irish Academy of Letters.

She has published ten volumes of poetry, the most recent being New Collected Poems (2008) and Domestic Violence (2007) and An Origin Like Water: Collected Poems 1967-87 (1996) with W.W. Norton.

The poet has also published two volumes of prose: Object Lessons: The Life of the Woman and the Poet in Our Time and A Journey with Two Maps: Becoming a Woman Poet, which won a 2012 PEN Award for creative nonfiction.

Culture Minister Josepha Madigan extended her sympathies to Ms Boland's loved ones this evening.

"I am extremely saddened to hear of the untimely passing of Eavan Boland at her home earlier today.

"Eavan had a stellar career and was undoubtedly the foremost female poet of her generation," Ms Madigan said in a statement.

"I would like to offer my condolences to her husband Kevin Casey and her daughters. Love will heal What language fails to know."

Poetry Ireland said it was "absolutely devastated" to hear of her death.

"This is a staggering loss to the Irish poetry community. Wishing peace and comfort to all who loved her, and whose lives have been changed by her work."

President Higgins said she was one of the "most insightful inner sources of Irish life".

"The revealing of a hidden Ireland, in terms of what was suffered, neglected, evaded, given insufficient credit, is a part of her achievement," he said in a statement this evening.

"If the long legacy of Irish poetry was a well from which she drew, its contemporary richness was recognised in her critical work. It owes much to her encouragement and generosity to fellow poets."

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar also paid tribute to Ms Boland.

"One of our best and boldest poets, someone whose work showed a remarkable sympathy and warmth. She documented the lives of women in history and culture and explored how the difficult truth about the past can help us make sense of the present," he wrote on Twitter.

"So many messages of hope in her poems, including her reminder that ‘Our island that was once/Settled and removed on the edge/Of Europe is now a bridge/To the world’."

Ms Boland is survived by her husband Kevin and two daughters.