[3] He is more frequently known as Magor, which can be roughly translated as "shithead",[4] "loony", or "fool" (though meant as a positive title), a nickname given to him by the experimental poet Eugen Brikcius [cs].
A condition of entry for students at the time was the completion of a year in industry before beginning their studies; in Jirous' case, he had to work as a construction worker and stoker.
[7] His sister Zara, who was two years older than him and married to the photographer Jan Ságl [cs], also pursued fine art.
He also organised several "festivals of independent culture"; the first took place in Postupice in September 1974, forcefully broken up by police,[4] followed by another in Bojanovice in 1976, which also served as a belated celebration of Jirous' marriage to his second wife Juliana.
[14] The whole trial was widely publicised by the regime as a deterrent against troublemakers and hooligans;[14] Czechoslovak Television released a documentary about them called An attack on culture, and an episode of television series Thirty Cases of Major Zeman, entitled Mimicry and starring Jiří Lábus, portrayed the group as drug addicts and terrorists.
[citation needed] The trial took place on 21–23 September 1976, and Jirous was convicted for "aggravated hooliganism", along with the musician and pastor Svatopluk Karásek, Pavel Zajíček of the group DG 307, and Vratislav Brabenec from PPU, and imprisoned for a second time, for 18 months.
[15] On his release from prison in 1977, Jirous signed the Charter,[3] and also organised a third "festival of independent culture", at Václav Havel's country house at Hrádeček in Trutnov District.
A month after returning home, Jirous was again sentenced to time in prison after he made a speech at a Jiří Lacina [cs] exhibition about the insuperable distinction between official and unofficial culture.
[citation needed] Jirous's fourth spell in prison was due to his role in producing, publishing and distributing the magazine Vokno, along with František Stárek [cs], Michal Hýbek, Milan Frič, and Jaroslav Chnápek.
[citation needed] Between 1981 and 1985, Jirous was again imprisoned, officially for disturbing the peace, but also, according to Amnesty International and VONS, for unsubstantiated charges of illegal possession of marijuana, allegedly found during a house search.
[citation needed] It was during this time that he wrote the poems later collected as Magor's Swan Song (Czech: Magorovy labutí písně), for which he later won the Tom Stoppard Award.
Jirous was imprisoned for "an attack on the state and social organisation" together with Jiri Tichy, and was in prison from 1988 until 25 November 1989, when the President of the Republic waived the rest of his sentence.
[citation needed] Until his death, Jirous lived in Prague and in a converted farmhouse in Vysočina, where the Magorovo Vydří music festival took place every year from the revolution until 2005.
[citation needed] Although his friend Jaroslav Eri Fric described him as "a devotee of purity, tenderness and justice", Jirous was vulgar and confrontational, often intentionally,[4] and sometimes physically aggressive when drunk.
Jirous contributed to journals including Ateliér, Divadlo ("Theatre"), Host do domu ("Guesthouse"), Sešity pro literaturu a diskusi ("Notebooks for literature and discussion"), Výtvarná práce ("Visual works"), Výtvarné umění ("Fine art"), Výtvarný život ("Visual life"), to the international periodicals Art Canada and Exile Testimony, as well as the samizdat publication Vokno.