Ireland was born Kevin Mark Jowsey in
Auckland on 18 July 1933. As an infant he travelled to London with his parents where they lived for a time before returning to New Zealand. Shortly thereafter, his parents' marriage failed and he grew up on his maternal grandfather's Waikato farm, and then in
Takapuna where he lived with his father. After leaving school, he studied at
Auckland Teachers' College but did not complete a qualification. After changing his surname by
deed poll to Ireland in 1957, he headed to
London in 1959 where he remained for twenty-five years (with the interlude of a short interval in
Bulgaria, translating
Bulgarian poetry into English); for two decades, Ireland was employed by
The Times. In 1986, Ireland was writer-in-residence at the
University of Canterbury; in 1987, he was awarded the
Sargeson Fellowship; in 1989, he was the
University of Auckland's writing fellow, assistant editor of
Quote Unquote, and president of
PEN, 1990–91. ==Personal life and death==