Boyne Berries 7 Launch

Thank God that's over! A great evening with one of our biggest crowds ever. Certainly the biggest line up yet of contributors to read, twenty. Thanks to all who attended, locals and those who travelled long distances, Dublin, Longford, Athy and even from Cork.

Meath County Librarian Ciaran Mangan performed the launch and spoke about the involvement of the Library in publishing including the publication of audio book versions of books by local authors. The Library is also supporting a volume of poetry associated with County Meath or by poets associated with the county later this year. This is being edited or compiled by poet Tom French who works in Navan Library. Ciaran is also a writer being a member of Oldcastle Writers Group in Meath.

Then the readings. These were mostly poems but the few pieces of prose were well delivered with suitable audience applause. We started with Peter Goulding who has just been shortlisted for one of the Strokestown Poetry Competitions and finished with Niamh Boyce who has been shortlisted for the WOW competition in Galway. In between the great variety of styles and themes made it a very enjoyable event.

Just before the tea, coffee and biscuits we presented our cover artist Greg Hastings with a small token of our appreciation for his impressive and distinctive cover art. He was suitably surprised!

Yesterday and today I've been counting the takings, posting off the contributors' copies, finishing off some work from a recent period of employment and bemoaning the fact that I'm not attending the Poetry Now festival in Dun Laoghaire.

A Boyne Berries 7 page on the Group's website has been created. Peter Goulding has blogged about the launch here and Orla Fay here. Pictures on her site.