Drogheda Open Mic

Very successful Open Mic session in Drogheda last night. Four of us Boyne Writers attended - picture above. Over forty people were there at least half of whom read. These included published authors and first time readers, with a wide span of ages.

A great selection of material, first chapters of novels, published poems and some work nervously being aired for the first time. We heard a piece to be read on Lyric FM's Quiet Quarter later this year. Especially good was the number of funny pieces - lots of humour, quite an amount of it delivered with exaggerated Drogheda accents. We had a very well delivered and received rap which livened things up no end. Music was also included and there was wine and nibbles.

Quite a number of the readers are included in the recently published Drogheda Writes 2 which was edited by Barbara Smith and Roger Hudson. Roger was there as were Marie McSweeney and Honor Duff, winner of the Cavan Caomhnu poetry competition earlier this year.

The venue itself was excellent. The reading took place in the spacious Callan Art Gallery which is attached to Boyne Books, the new and secondhand bookshop recently opened in West Street. The featured artist this month at the gallery is John Philip Murray and his paintings provided a interesting backdrop for the evening.

One or two readers did read a little longer than they should. For an open mic like this where there are plenty of readers two or three short poems or the prose equivalent is enough. Leaving the audience wanting more rather than wondering how many more is he going to read seems the best plan. Apart from that, a most enjoyable night. Congrats to the organisers and readers!