Pete Mullineaux Again

Pete Mullineaux, who read at the Boyle Arts Festival last Sunday and was its poetry competition judge, is the guest poet at next week's O Bheal reading Upstairs at The Long Valley, Winthrop Street, Cork on Monday 3 August at 9.00pm. The night begins with a Poetry Challenge followed by the guest poet at 10.00pm, after which there is the usual open mic session.

I've just read Pete's first collection called A Father's Day published by Salmon Poetry. The majority of the poems, though not all, deal in some way with the father-son relationship. These include two matching poems on a son looking for a Fathers' Day card in Eason's, Galway and observing the other fathers at the same task. They and many others in the collection deal with the often awkward nature of the father-son relationship. The first Father's Day poem ends thus:

I settle for a Valentine instead -
"I love you Dad!"
There, it's said.

Pete read some of these in Boyle and his reading style complements the poetry. His reading of Tonight's the Night about taking his dad to see Neil Young was very impressive.

I took Dad to see Neil Young; he wore his suit (Dad that is -
Neil Young wore a tie-dye shirt.)

He also has a poem Coming Back Down "after Frost" which he delivered in his Robert Frost voice and was a hilarious take off of the sometimes inflated seriousness of Frost's reading. You can hear Frost reading two poems here.

Pete Mullineaux's poems are generally written in a free form and have the air of having being dashed off in a hurry almost off hand. Generally this means either that they have been dashed off in a hurry or that a long time has been spent trying to achieve the effect. In the case of these poems it would appear to be the latter.

Well worth going along to hear if you live in Cork.

Hip Hop Poetry for Wedding

Wedding on Monday, son Oisin married Carol. Great day, fine weather, great collection of relations and friends including some past pupils. Reception at Kilmessan Station House Hotel, lovely venue. Picture: Oisin and Carol arrive in style.

I had to give a speech of course. Oisin's Masters dissertation was called “The Poet, the Politician and the Playa – Notions of Self and role in Hip-Hop Poetry” so instead of quoting standard love poetry or using one of those wedding jokes from the internet I decided to use a Hip Hop quotation. Not easy to find a one on the subject of love and marriage suitable for a family occasion.

Finally took this extract, slightly amended, from One Chance (Make It Good) by Snoop Dogg from the album Ego Trippin’

If you like her, wife her
If you love her, smother her
With that stuff that'll make her feel the same way
And pull that ring out on the same day
with the horse and the carriage
You gonna lose if you scared of marriage
You gotta have a foundation
You need somebody in your life with patience.

It went down well I think mostly because of the image of this oldish balding chap in hired wedding suit and waistcoat reciting hip hop lyrics!

Borders Blanchardstown

Borders bookshop in Blanchardstown is closing down. They have been running a half price sale for a few weeks now and there were reports of queues to get in to the shop and long delays at the tills.

I dropped in last Saturday. Plenty of books left but you have to search for what you want, category distinctions have become blurred. I found quite a number of poetry books left. The shop was busy but the queues for check out were quick. They are finally closing around August 8th.

I got a few books for half price. These included another rhyming dictionary, Cavafy Collected Poems, the new Heaney version of Henryson and a book I've been meaning to read for some time now: Robert Tressell's The Ragged Trousered Philantropists (1914).

You can get it as an e-book here. More information here. BBC Radio 4 broadcast the book in three episodes of an hour in length in 2008 and these may be available as audio downloads on the internet.

More to add to the MUST READ SOON pile.

Boyle Poetry Competition

I'm just back from reading my highly commended poem Waterlogged at the poetry competition at Boyle Arts Festival in Co. Roscommon. I was delighted with the commendation. I was also highly commended two years ago when another member of our group, Brendan Carey Kinane, won first prize.

The adjudicator for the competition this year was Bristol-born but Galway-resident poet, Pete Mullineaux, and he gave a poetry reading today at the Royal Hotel at 12.30pm. The reading was followed by the presentation of prizes to the winner and runners up and by readings of the winning and highly recommended poems.

I bought Pete's recently published book of poems on the basis that it's the least I can do after he takes notice of a poem of mine. His book is entitled A Father's Day and is available from Salmon. From what he read it seems very interesting. Poems of his, A Chair here and Mowing here. and Father's Day here.

Boyle Poetry Competition 2009 Results: Winner: Joe Fulham. Four Runners Up: Anna Colhoun, Jessamine O'Connor, Peggy Gallagher and Mike Casey. Highly Commended: Christine Broey, Padraig Higgins, Mary Turley, Mags Traynor, Seamus Harrington, Michael Farry, Mike Casey, Joe Fulham.

I presume the winner is the same Joe Fulham we published in Boyne Berries. If so he lives in Ratoath, Co. Meath, has had poems published in Cyphers and had a poem included in the Oxfam Poetry calendar for 2007.

A Last Milton Blog

In Samson Agonistes Milton has Samson explain how Dalila (Delilah) cut his hair and deprived him of his strength in these lines:

At length to lay my head and hallow'd pledge
Of all my strength in the lascivious lap
Of a deceitful Concubine who shore me
Like a tame Weather, all my precious fleece,
Then turn'd me out ridiculous, despoil'd,
Shav'n, and disarm'd among my enemies.

Samson Agonistes (535-540)

A note explained what weather meant but I didn't need it. My father and his father always had sheep and I was familiar with specific "sheep" terms including wether. It means a castrated male sheep. Do you know what a hogget is? Answer on this page.

Just finished the Yale series of lectures on John Milton by Professor John Rogers. Easy listening as Rogers spends a lot of time relating each of the great works to Milton's own biography and describing what he calls Milton's "Unparalleled self-absorption".

The picture is of an Ox Mountain sheep. Whether its a wether or a hogget I didn't ask.

Now to write a wedding speech - Paradise Lost or Paradise Regained?

Fennel, John Milton and Strokestown House

We have fennel growing in the garden (picture above) with some other herbs. I like its interesting aroma and pleasing shape and colours. Sitting in the chair recently reading Paradise Lost I came across a reference to the herb. Satan is tempting Eve, describing the tree with the forbidden fruit:

Till on a day roving the field, I chanc'd
A goodly tree far distant to behold,
Loaden with fruit of fairest colours mix'd,
Ruddy and gold. I nearer drew to gaze,
When from the boughs a savoury odour blown,
Grateful to appetite, more pleas'd my sense
Than smell of sweetest fennel,

Paradise Lost IX (575-581).

A note stated that according to popular belief, snakes liked fennel.

An internet research provided a lot of information about the herb and its uses.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote about it in his poem The Goblet of Life:

Above the lowly plants it towers,
The fennel, with its yellow flowers,
And in an earlier age than ours
Was gifted with the wondrous powers,
Lost vision to restore.

That last line is interesting in view of the fact that Milton was blind by the time he was composing Paradise Lost. Had he tried fennel as a cure?

Then last week on a visit to the very impressive gardens of Strokestown House, Co Roscommon I saw fennel growing in what is or was listed in the Guinness Book Of Records as the longest Herbaceous Border in Britain and Ireland. (Picture below).

Summer Poetry

If you can't go outside because of the rain why not look at some of the Poems for Summer on the Poets.org website.

A great selection there dealing with much more than sunshine and flowers including a very interesting one from Irish poet Vona Groarke called The Family Photograph.

We have a wedding on Monday - much looking at family photographs at the moment and looking forward to significant new family photographs being created.

The Trip to Sligo 6

We lived in Leyney railway station house in Coolaney which is on the closed Ennis to Collooney railway line - the so-called Western Rail Corridor. The station was closed in 1963 and the railway line soon afterwards. The line was never lifted so the track remains in place though overgrown. The picture shows a train, a "special" passing the station in 1971.

There has been agitation over the years to have it reopened. The Transport 21 policy document of November 1st 2005, stated that it was Government Policy to re-open the Western Rail Corridor as part of a comprehensive rail development programme for the whole country. This was to be done in two phases, commencing with the Ennis-Claremorris section and followed by the Claremorris-Collooney section.

However the recent McCarthy report recommends dropping the western rail corridor from the public transport programme, report here.

When I went to look around the station house recently I found a crew there making a film. I'm not sure of the plot of the film but it has something to do with the possible reopening of the railway. The crew, Laighne Films Ltd, is local, based in Tubbercurry, and this seems to be the second such film they have made.

Their previous feature film was called The Old Fair Day Conspiracy and there are reports here and here of its showing in Tubbercurry.

The current film should be completed and on show by this time next year.

Real Madrid in Dublin

Real Madrid was the glory team of my early interest in soccer winning the European Cup five times in a row between 1956 and 1960. Alfredo Di Stéfano, Ferenc Puskás, Francisco Gento and Raymond Kopa were familiar names and faces to us in rural Sligo in the fifties thanks to newspapers and sports magazines so it was a great pleasure to see the latest version in action last night in Tallaght. Full house, great atmosphere, good Shamrock Rovers support and enjoyable game.

Being a Sligo Rovers supporter (they beat us three times this season) I couldn't support "Shams" but I was pleased that they didn't lose by much. We were behind the Real goal in the first half and most of the action was at the other end, so we didn't see Ronaldo in close up action. He was singled out for booing each time he got the ball which seems a bit pathetic, a provincial imitation of what has been seen on TV. This booing of Ronaldo started didn't it after his involvement in the sending of of Rooney in the English defeat by Portugal in the World Cup of 2006. On YouTube here. I bet most of those who booed him last night were delighted that England were beaten that evening.

Anyway Ronaldo played well, stayed out on the right most of the time, passed the ball well and made a few trademark dribbles. I was disappointed he was substituted at half time and he didn't play into "our" goal in the second half.

Shamrock Rovers played well, worked very hard and probably deserved a draw. Top: Ronaldo preparing to take a free. Below: Ronaldo helping his defence defend a corner.

Coolaney Rose and Woodbine

The rambling or climbing roses are doing well in the garden this year entwined with woodbine. The rose originally grew at the railway station in Coolaney and I took cuttings and they thrived here in Meath. I've no idea where it originally came from or what its correct name is.

The woodbine is Lonicera periclymenum Belgica and it has also done well.

Robert Frost mentions both the rose and woodbine in his poem To Earthward.

The woodbine is also mentioned in Milton's Paradise Lost. It's just before the fall, Adam wants Eve to work with him in the garden, she wants to go off and work on her own. She says:

Let us divide our labours, thou where choice
Leads thee, or where most needs, whether to wind
The Woodbine round this Arbour, or direct
The clasping Ivie where to climb
(Paradise Lost Book 9, 214-217)

Adam agrees, the devil in disguise tempts her and you know the rest.

More about woodbine here and here.

The Trip to Sligo 5

Still in Coolaney. Coolaney Summer Festival, 23 July 2009 - 26 July 2009, is an annual fundraising event organised by Coolaney Development Company. Events include arts, music, sports and a celebration of Coolaney's rural heritage. This year's activities include a fun run, race night, children's day including a treasure hunt, playstation challenge and a puppet show. There will be on-street entertainment and live music and novelty events throughout the weekend.

The bardic poetry in the Book of O'Hara and similar collections are generally praise poems and genealogies for chieftains using well worn themes and common poetic styles.
Now and then a different note is struck as when Tadhg Dall O hUiginn (1550-1591), the well-know Sligo bardic poet, writes to O'Hara:

I am continually in the jaws of danger,
because of all the gossip that has been made about me, having no one to protect me,
unless thou canst undertake it.

(Translation by Eleanor Knott.)

This was written towards the end of the sixteenth century when English influence and control was being extended over Connacht and chieftains like O'Hara and poets who depended on them were feeling very vulnerable.

Tadhg Dall is believed to have been killed in 1591 by a band of the O'Hara clan in revenge for a satire he wrote describing them as six greedy vagabonds who in return for his hospitality stole his milk. Satire can seriously damage your health!

You can read a literal translation of the satire here. A new translation might be an interesting challenge!

Simon and Garfunkel

Another interruption to the Trip to Sligo. I do listen to more than Bob Dylan of course. I recently had an argument with a musician at a poetry reading. He was there to enliven the session and finished with a Leonard Cohen song, a very nice arrangement of Suzanne in fact. We talked about relative merits of singer songwriters, he pushing Cohen, me Dylan. I agreed that Cohen was much more suitable for a poetry reading. Cohen has published books of poetry while Dylan sees himself (I think) as a typical American singer, writing, adapting, reinterpreting and stealing songs and song themes and airs.

Simon and Garfunkel are more like Cohen, have more self conscious "poetry" in their lyrics. I know at least one poet who uses The Sound of Silence in his poetry workshops. Anyway Simon and Garfunkel are on a eastern tour at the moment and by the wonders of the internet you can listen to and download their July 10th 2009 Tokyo concert here.

I like the early stuff especially the Bookends album and some songs from that are included in the concert. When it was released first it was young singer songwriters writing about old people now it has a different resonance.

Old friends,
Winter companions,
The old men
Lost in their overcoats,
Waiting for the sunset.
The sounds of the city,
Sifting through trees,
Settle like dust
On the shoulders
Of the old friends.

Old Friends from Bookends (1968)

The Trip to Sligo 4

And then the arrival at Coolaney, the small village in the centre of the county on the southern slopes of the Ox Mountains. Not to be confused with Collooney the larger village five miles away. Because of the possible confusion the railway station at Coolaney was named Leyney to avoid the Coolaney/Collooney confusion.

Coolaney has been the tidiest town in County Sligo for the past seven years and it's easy to see why when you drive through the town. Lots of new building during the Celtic Tiger days haven't spoiled it.

Once an important place, it had the chief castle of the O'Hara clan which ruled the area. The manuscript Book of O'Hara is in the National Library and the compiler, Cormac O'Hara, lived in a castle at the end of the town. He died in 1612. The book contains bardic poems dealing with the O'Hara family.

The Sligo crest on the sign above contains the title of an early Yeats' play The Land of Heart's Desire. In that play Yeats ends with "many voices singing":

But I heard a reed of Coolaney say -
"When the wind has laughed and murmured and sung,
The lonely of heart is withered away."

A few miles from Coolaney are the Hawk's Rock and the Holy Well which have been suggested as the source of Yeats' Hawk's Well in his 1917 play.

Áine's Coolaney page here.

Bruno - Navan Cinema

An interruption in the Trip to Sligo to bring breaking news:

It's the silly season isn't it, so nothing much to report on, just slashing cuts on public service proposed, a plane crash here or there, a flu epidemic on the way, small war in large country far away - so the papers and internet are full of a recorded message in Navan Diamond Cinema which warns potential customers about the film Bruno. The Irish Independent has it here, the Mirror here, the Telegraph here and there's probably lots more. The message is here on YouTube.

The message is by Paul Egan, one of the Boyne Writers Group members, who played a major part in our satire victory at the Trim Swift Festival recently. His political satire piece imagined Brian Cowen and Noel Dempsey trying to pick a Mary to be the next President of Ireland (You have to be a Mary) and considering the claims of rival Marys. Mary O'Rourke made an unwelcome appearance in the piece. Noel Dempsey was in the audience and seemed to really enjoy it or it that just what politicians have to pretend to do!

The Trip to Sligo 3

And then just after the Gaelic Chieftain sculpture you reach County Sligo as you cross the Curlew Mountains.

I like this sign. Sometimes it's difficult to know when you have passed into a different county. It's as if the county was shy about putting itself forward. This seems not to be the case with Sligo. This sign proclaims the county without reticence.

I'm not sure to what extent the symbols are nationally agreed. Is there a committee somewhere which decides if you can put the quill symbol on your county sign? Which counties have this sign and which not? Does County Meath use it because of Francis Ledwidge? Do bardic poets count? Do chick-lit authors count? What happens if you have a number of famous writers? Can you include two or more quills?

Anyway it's a good feeling to see this sign and I'm reminded of a song written by Thom Moore who lived in Sligo for a period and was a member of band called Pumpkinhead. I met Thom last year at the Goldsmith Festival in Longford where I won second prize and he won third prize. He had a great poem/song about the famine. Thom writes about the song here.

The Scholar

The train from Sligo moves too slow as it brings her from the school below
She wants to be home faster than the train from Sligo ever can and
Wonders where the passing time goes creeping by the window my, oh my
It’s getting longer than it ever has before.

I actually got it wrong, I thought it was The train to Sligo moves too slow and the singer was in a hurry to get there.. Anyway it's a good song.

And speaking of Sligo the winners of the iYeats competition have been announced.

The Trip to Sligo 2

The most spectacular and successful sculpture on the road to Sligo must be The Gaelic Chieftain on the Curlews bypass near Boyle, Co Roscommon. It was inspired by the Battle of the Curlews in 1599 when, during the nine years war, Red Hugh O'Donnell defeated an English army on the Curlew Mountains.

Unveiled in 1999 by Trim resident, Minister Noel Dempsey, it is by Derry-born sculptor Maurice Harron.

A combination of excellent position, visible from a distance whether travelling to or from Sligo and great use of material make sit one of the best of the many sculptures dotted on bypasses and road improvements around the country as a result of the percent for art scheme.

O'Donnell left Ireland for Spain after the end of the war and the defeat at Kinsale. Eoghan Ruadh Mac an Bhaird, chief poet to O’Donnell, implored God’s protection for his lord:

Dia dot eadráin san amsa
ar ghluasacht ngaoth ccodarsna,
ar ghoin n-ainchridhigh gach fhir,
‘s ar mhoir n-ainbhthinigh idir.

Osborn Bergin translates: ‘God protect thee at this time from the motion of contrary winds, and from the cruel wound of every man, and from all stormy seas’.

O’Donnell died soon afterwards in Spain aged 29. It was suspected by many that he had been poisoned by English agents.

The Trip to Sligo 1

As far as I can see the only sculpture relating to a writer on my journey to Sligo is the one on the Edgeworthstown bypass on the N4 at Edgeworthstown, Co. Longford. This is a sculpture of Maria Edgeworth (1768 - 1849). She is generally considered one of the most important Anglo-Irish fiction writers of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Biographical information here and here

She was born in Oxfordshire, England and received her early education in England. Her family, members of the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy, moved to the family estate in County Longford and Maria lived there most of her life surrounded by a close-knit family.

She is best remembered for her first novel, Castle Rackrent (1800), a satire of dissolute landowners. Other works include a London novel, Belinda (1801), and more Irish novels, Ennui (1809), The Absentee (1812), and Ormond (1817).

She traveled frequently to England and visited Europe twice before she was fifty, meeting with philosophers and writers. She became very friendly with Walter Scott and visited him in Scotland. She is buried in the family vault in the cemetery adjoining St. John’s Church in Edgeworthstown. The town hosts an annual literary festival in her honour.

The sculpture is by Irish sculptor Mel French.

Poetry - Latest Issue: John Milton and Michael Hartnett

Following on the recent mention of John Milton I'm pleased to see an article entitled Sing, God-awful Muse! On Milton and the Nipple Nazi of Northampton by American poet Daisy Fried. Fried explains the the Nazi reference in her title with reference to a day-long childbirth class in November 2006 inan overheated hospital conference room in Western Massachusetts. She mentions the perceived difficulty of Milton's work and the fact that Dennis Danielson, author of many books and articles on Milton, has published—as a way to deal
with the epic’s difficulty—Paradise Lost: Parallel Prose Edition, a “translation” into easy English without the line-breaks. The text of the poem is printed on the opposite pages.

She recounts her own finding of Paradise Lost: I realize I don’t read Paradise Lost in terms of questions of theology and morality, free will and predestination, but rather as a novel in verse. What does Satan want? How is he different from Adam? Who do we sympathize with?

Also in this issue as part of a feature entitled Poets We've Known Irish poet Conor O'Callaghan contributes an article entitled You're Not the Outlaw You Think You Are - Remembering Michael Hartnett. Hartnett lived the dream, or the nightmare it increasingly looked - according to O'Callaghan.

Michael Harnett's poetry books from Gallery Press.

To Rhyme or not to Rhyme

One of the judges at last Sunday's satire competition expressed the opinion that real poetry should rhyme. Presumably this is in the oft expressed belief that all poetry in the past was written in rhyme. Not so.

John Milton wrote Paradise Lost in blank verse without rhymes. In the second edition his printer asked him to include a note about the absence of rhymes, presumably there had been complaints. This is what Milton wrote:

THE VERSE: THE Measure is English Heroic Verse without Rime, as that of Homer in Greek, and Virgil in Latin; Rhime being no necessary Adjunct or true Ornament of Poem or good Verse, in longer Works especially, but the Invention of a barbarous Age, to set off wretched matter and lame Meeter; grac't indeed since by the use of some famous modern Poets, carried away by Custom, but much to thir own vexation, hindrance, and constraint to express many things otherwise, and for the most part worse then else they would have exprest them.

Not without cause therefore some both Italian, and Spanish Poets of prime note have rejected Rhime both in longer and shorter Works, as have also long since our best English Tragedies, as a thing of itself, to all judicious ears, triveal, and of no true musical delight; which consists onely in apt Numbers, fit quantity of Syllables, and the sense variously drawn out from one Verse into another, not in the jingling sound of like endings, a fault avoyded by the learned Ancients both in Poetry and all good Oratory.

This neglect then of Rhime so little is to be taken for a defect, though it may seem so perhaps to vulgar Readers, that it rather is to be esteem'd an example set, the first in English, of ancient liberty recover'd to heroic Poem from the troublesom and modern bondage of Rimeing.

Milton was a master of polemic and wasn't afraid to attack vulgar readers who demanded this jingling sound of like endings which caused vexation, hindrance and constraint.

Of course there are some rhymes in Paradise Lost and Milton used rhymes in other poems, the sonnets obviously and also Lycidas.

My piece of satirical poetry last Sunday night had a very strong rhyme scheme throughout, luckily!.

Yale Lectures - John Milton

I'm about half way through a series of Open Yale Lectures which are available as audio and video on the internet. This is a study of Milton's poetry, with some attention to his literary sources, his contemporaries, his controversial prose, and his decisive influence on the course of English poetry.

The lectures are by Professor John Rogers, Professor of English at Yale University. He is the author of The Matter of Revolution: Science, Poetry, and Politics in the Age of Milton and is currently working on a book on Milton's relationship to antitrinitarian heresy, entitled Milton and the Heresy of Individualism. An interesting and lively lecturer with flashes of humour, insight and wonder.

This Yale College course, taught on campus twice per week for 50 minutes, was recorded for Open Yale Courses in autumn 2007. There are twenty four fifty minute lectures in all.

If you want an audio version of Paradise Lost for your iPod there's one here from Cambridge University. Twelve books of roughly one thousand lines each. Enjoy!

Dromineer Literary Festival

Details of this year's Dromineer Literary Festival have been announced. It will take place from the 1st - 4th October 2009 at the Lough Derg Yacht Club, Dromineer, Co. Tipperary. Report in Irish Times here. The full details are on the festival website here. I attended last year and found it a very friendly affair. I attended the official opening, the prizegiving and reading of prizewinning entries and the workshop given by poet Tony Curtis.

Among this year's artists are Michael Harding author of the weekly "Displaced in Mullingar" column in The Irish Times. He is a novelist, playright and actor, and has recently worked with Siamsa Tire in Tralee on the production of 'Moriarty', a fusion of movement, music, song and spoken word based on the life of the late mystic and philosopher, John Moriarty. In this year's 'Meet the Author' session he will read from and respond to comments on his columns.

Vona Groarke is one of Ireland's foremost contemporary poets, has published numerous collections and is a frequent contributor to major journals. She is often to be heard on RTE radio's Sunday Miscellany. She is also a distinguished academic who has taught in Norway and the United States. She is currently on the Creative Writing Team at the University of Manchester. She will be giving a workshop at the festival.

The festival has poetry and short story competitions. Closing date 7 August, prizes 500 euro, 350 euro and 150 euro. Worth having a go!

Swift Satire Winner Online

The text of the winning entry in the 2009 Swift Satire Competition has been added to the Boyne Writers Group page here.

The winner, David Rowell, from Churchtown, Dublin was a prize-winner in the Goldsmith Festival Poetry Competition (2009), the Amergin Poetry Competition (2007), the Golden Pen Poetry Competition (2007) and the Francis Ledwidge Poetry Competition (2006). He has been published in Poetry Ireland Review (2007) and Crannog Magazine (2007). He was chosen by Poetry Ireland to read in their ‘Introductions’ series (2009). He has broadcast pieces on RTE Lyric FM’s ‘Lyric Notes’ and RTE’s ‘Sunday Miscellany’.

He attended the Swift Cabaret on Sunday night last and read his winning entry Tiger Missing– Reward for Recovery which was very well received by the audience. Congratulations David and thanks to all who entered.

The Battle of the Books 2009

The Battle of the Books has taken place and a winner has been declared. At the final event, a Swift Cabaret, of the 2009 Trim Swift Festival last evening the Boyne Writers Group and the Meath Writers Circle met in a satire contest. Four on each side, two poetry and two prose, read their own word and were judged by three distinguished and even severe judges. A great variety in the topic and style of satire, much comment on the recession, some political satire and even some sex education. Which Mary will Fianna Fail choose as the next president? One contestant, Frank Murphy of the Writers Circle, scored a perfect ten from one of the judges.

A very responsive audience laughed at all the right places and seemed to really enjoy the presentations. Minister Noel Dempsey presented the Cavan Crystal awards and the perpetual trophy. My own offering was a strongly rhymed poem entitled The Celtic Tiger Recession Blues which as one of the judges pointed out had major Dylan influences. Another of the judges thought it had echoes of one of Joseph O'Connor's radio pieces. It may have had but I seldom listen to Joe and it certainly wasn't influenced by him.

Who won? Oh we won. We were ahead after two rounds but the two big guns of the opposition, Tommy Murray and Frank Murphy, produced the two highest scoring satires of the night and made it very close. In a cliffhanger of a finish it all depended on the very last judge - we won by two points.

Below: The Winning team with the Minister. Thanks to group member Anne for the photo.

More Swift Lectures

Another three excellent lectures yesterday as part of the Trim Swift Festival. Part of the pleasure in attending these is not knowing much about the topic but feeling that you are in the hands of an expert, full of enthusiasm and knowledge anxious to share that enthusiasm and knowledge but keen to keep you interested and even amused.

The attendance is a mixture of academics who are keen to learn but also keen to question and even challenge and the laity, including me, who are aware of Swift and his works but are in no sense experts.

Greg Lynall of the University of Liverpool spoke on Swift's Satiric Alchemy. He dealt particularly with A Tale of a Tub arguing that Swift used the methods of the alchemists in generating far fetched interpretations and hidden meanings of texts to satirise the writings of the hacks of his day. He also satirises the growing phenomenon on encyclopaedias of condensed knowledge which are used by these hacks to lend an air of authority to their scribblings. He asked what Swift would have said about Wikipedia?

Professor Hermann J. Real, director of the Ehrenpreis Centre for Swift Studies at Westfalische Wilhelms-Universitat, Munster spoke on The Dean and the Lord Chancellor: or, Swift Saving his Bacon. The Bacon referred to is Francis Bacon, author of such foundational texts as The Advancement of Learning, Novum Organum and the utopian fantasy New Atlantis. The lecture discussed the influence of Bacon on Swift's writing in general and on the third voyage of Gulliver's Travels - The voyage to Laputa - in particular. This section of the Travels is the one most criticised at the time of publication and since. He made the case that the description of the School of Languages in Lapuda was a satire on efforts of followers of Bacon to reform the English language.

Finally Dr Frank Ferguson, of the Institute of Ulster Scots Studies, University of Ulster spoke on Swift and Leinster - Scots. He gave examples of various texts from the time of Swift mostly written in Dublin in the Scots dialect which have relevance to Swift. These included a pastoral elegy on the death of Jonathan Swift. Frank Ferguson has edited Ulster Scots Writing: An Anthology, (Four Courts Press, 2008).

That's the academic programme over. The general effect is to locate Swift firmly in his age, responding to the political, linguistic, religious and philosophical complexions of his time through mediums which were commonly used at the time - satire, polemic, poetry and pamphleteering. He comes out of the weekend more human, more real and more lovable though I definitely wouldn't like to cross him.

The other thing of course is the desire to read all his works straight away and the commentaries of course. Oh dear, Heaney just finished, I've started on Milton so Jonathan has to wait in line - he won't like that!

Picture is of Festival Academic Director James Ward introducing Greg Lynall.

Trim Swift Festival - Academic Programme

This was the first day of the Trim Swift Festival and I attended all three academic lectures. How wonderful to have nothing more pressing to do than to attend and listen to three knowledgeable speakers on different esoteric aspects of the Dean's work and career.

The first lecture by Richard Holmes from the Department of English, University of Bristol, was entitled: Why did James Arbuckle write "A Panegyric on Dean Swift"? This is a satire on Swift which was long considered (and still is by some) to have been penned by Swift himself as a "self-satire".

James Arbuckle, born a Presbyterian in Belfast, educated at Glasgow University, moved to Dublin under the patronage of the radical Whig Viscount Molesworth. Arbuckle was clearly identified as a political opponent of Swift in a series of lampoons from Swift's circle. He then wrote this poem "A Panegyric . . . " a more severe attack on Swift.

Holmes talk gave an insight into cultural conflict between the Whig/Anglican viewpoint to which Swift belonged and the Presbyterian/Tory party which Arbuckle espoused. This gave a great sense of Swift not being an isolated figure but one of a whole coterie of writers, politicians and thinkers of the time who disputed, debated and insulted each other about fundamentals of religion and philosophy.

Richard Holmes was the 2008 British Association of Irish Studies Postgraduate Essay Prize winner for his essay ‘James Arbuckle: A Polite Critique of Swift’.

The second lecture was by the festival's academic director Dr. James Ward of the University of Ulster, Coleraine on the wonderful topic: Jonathan Swift and the Value of Rubbish. He quoted many examples of Swift's listings of rubbish, litter, waste including this one from The Lady's Dressing Room:

Now listen while he next produces
The various Combs for various Uses,
Fill'd up with Dirt so closely fixt,
No Brush could force a way betwixt.
A Paste of Composition rare,
Sweat, Dandriff, Powder, Lead and Hair;

The final lecture on this first day was by Professor Robert Mahony, the author of Jonathan Swift: The Irish Identity. He was director of the Centre for Irish Studies at the Catholic University of America, Washington D.C. and he spoke on Swift and the Irish Colonial Project. He explained the intricacies of Swift's attitude to the relation between England and Ireland.

He considered himself English not Irish, and Mahony argued that Swift was in fact always a supporter of the colonial project of having Ireland "thoroughly subdued and reduced to Obedience of the Crowne of England" and that such an understanding is well supported by an examination of two texts especially: Swift's Abstract of The History of England (c. 1703), and Gulliver's Travels.

Now to work on my own little piece of satire for Sunday night. Dr James Ward is chairman of the judging panel. What rhymes with Rubbish?

The Swift Battle is almost upon us!

Trim Swift Festival was officially launched last evening by Minister Noel Dempsey whose brainchild the festival is. Some very good speeches at the event especially from the academics - Jonathan Swift is the greatest Irish writer? You can't beat an enthusiastic academic to make a interesting, riveting speech without notes. A lot of talk about satire and I began to worry about the satire I have written for the satire contest on Sunday night. Is it actually satire? I'm having another look at it and see if I can improve the quality of its satire.

The contest, dubbed The Battle of the Books, between our group, Boyne Writers and Meath Writers Circle takes place on Sunday evening in the Trim Castle Hotel during the Swift Cabaret Evening. The two captains above in a photo for the press, Tommy Murray, captain of what Paddy has been calling the Meath WC, and myself. Article in the Meath Chronicle here.

I'm attending the Festival lectures today. Retirement is great!

Market St., Trim: Old and New

The picture above is from the Laurence Collection of photographs taken sometime around the beginning of the 20th century and now available online from the National Library of Ireland in their National Photographic Archive.

It shows Market St., Trim with the Yellow Steeple in the background. Below is the same view taken a few days ago. The modern view was taken around 2pm on a week-day, we have no way of knowing what time or day the older one was taken so we have to be careful about making judgements as to the amount of traffic and street activity then. The main structures on both sides of the street remain more or less the same with the exception of the Bank of Ireland building on the right - the red brick building.

Because the older picture is in black and white we are inclined to think it duller but in fact we have no idea what colour the houses are painted. I suspect they are painted in a variety of bright primary colours as indeed was the style in former days. The modern scene is noteworthy for its lack of colour. Bland off-white colours reign supreme. Even the cars are dull. I bet the carts in the older picture are brightly painted - red, green, blue no doubt, certainly no magnolia.

Swift Satire Competition - Results

The results of the Swift Festival Satire Competition have been announced: The entrants had to write poetry or prose on either: A Tale Of A Tiger: Fat Cats Bring Down The Big Cat or Banks and Bankers: A Modest Proposal. Entries were judged on the basis of satire, irony, absurd humour, acute political insight, grotesque imagination, and lacerating wit - the hallmarks of Swifts best works.

The winner was David Rowell, Churchtown, Dublin; Second prize went to Joe Barry, Kilcock, Co Kildare and third prize went to Kate Smith, St Neots, Cambridgeshire, UK.

David Rowell was a prize-winner in the Goldsmith Festival Poetry Competition (2009), the Amergin Poetry Competition (2007), the Golden Pen Poetry Competition (2007) and the Francis Ledwidge Poetry Competition (2006). He has been published in Poetry Ireland Review (2007) and Crannog Magazine (2007). He was chosen by Poetry Ireland to read in their ‘Introductions’ series (2009). He has broadcast pieces on RTE Lyric FM’s ‘Lyric Notes’ and RTE’s ‘Sunday Miscellany’.

The first and third prizewinners wrote poetry. David Rowell wrote very accomplished rhyming couplets with many amusing references to well know events and characters in Irish public life. He also slipped in a neat use of the word symmetry about the Celtic Tigers eyes, referencing Blake's Tyger.

David finishes like this after locating the ailing tiger in the zoo:

What will get her going again she will say
is a well balanced diet with meat every day-
Developers - Monday Wednesday and Sat,
Bankers on alternate days, fancy that.
Weekends? Politicians, you won’t be surprised ,
but only provided they’re well tenderised.

Joe Barry's entry consisted of a conversation between a boy and his father in one of the former prosperous suburbs in south Dublin. The mother is outside growing vegetables in what was the tennis court. Questions such as: So where's all the money gone Dad? and Do the bankers eat steak Dad? elicit subtle comments on our present precarious economic situation. The son's final comment is When I grow up I am going to be a banker. Kate Smith from the UK took the Fat Cats Bring Down The Big Cat topic and cleverly related it to the MPs expenses scandal in the UK. She finishes her poem like this:

The speaker is silenced, the cabinet crumbled
And all because the taxpayers grumbled.
Who will these fat cats next take down?
I guess it will be Gordon Brown.

SHORTLIST

The follow were shortlisted for the competition:

Stephen Brady, Ashford, Co Wicklow;
Miles Cain, York, UK;
John Clarke, Middlesex, UK;
Maureen Gallagher, Rahoon, Galway
Peter Goulding, Castaheany, Dublin;
Iggy McGovern, Clonskeagh, Dublin;
Jamie Ward, Ballybay, Co Monaghan

The judge for the competition was Ivan Yates chairman and managing director of Celtic Bookmakers and a former Fine Gael politician and government minister. The winner will read his winning entry at the Swift Summer Night in the Knightsbrook Hotel, Trim on 5th July.