The Age of Glass Review

I'm delighted with this very careful, complimentary and insightful review of my latest collection, The Age of Glass, by Colin Dardis on the Lagan Online website.

The review concludes:

"Usually, it’s easy to spot the filler in a collection, the poems that could have benefited from a good editor, or just shouldn’t have made the cut. There’s none of that here: in each poem, every line speaks to every other line, concrete, essential and assured of its direction and purpose.

Perhaps overall, it is the power of death that is given the most reverence within, its touch seen in others, felt too close. And yet of the call to rage against that dying light, Farry tells us that death is to accepted; the wearing of a crucifix is “gentle on my neck, | the body no extra burden”.

With touches of dark humour, knockout phrases and overwhelming poignancy, Farry has truly delivered a contender for book of the year here, and one hopes that there will be more to follow soon."

Sligo in the Atlas of the Irish Revolution

I'm delighted to have an article on the War of Independence in County Sligo in the Atlas of the Irish Revolution, just published by Cork University Press.

This is a huge volume of almost 1,000 pages, written by the leading historians, geographers and literary scholars of the Irish revolutionary period.

This work, with its authoritative texts, superb photographs, informative maps and its reproduction of key documents, promises to be the outstanding publication of the ‘decade of commemoration'.

More information here.

To have a look inside the book go here.

A Sunday Business Post review here.

Bailieborough Poetry Festival

Bailieborough Poetry Festival details online now.

A great line-up of poets from Ireland, the UK and the USA, including Noel Monahan, Patrick Chapman and Gerard Smyth, American poet Linda Opyr and Emily Wills from the UK.

The festival takes place Thursday - Saturday 5 - 7 October 2017.

Full details here: http://www.bailieboroughpoetry.com/poetry-festival/

Details of the poetry competition are also online. Judge this year is Patrick Chapman and the closing date is Friday 2 September.

http://www.bailieboroughpoetry.com/2017-poetry-prize/

The Age of Glass - My second poetry collection

My second poetry collection, The Age of Glass, was published by Revival Press, Limerick, Ireland in  June 2017. The design and cover image is by Lotte Bender.

The collection contains a total of 63 poems grouped in five sections, the last of which is "Gerontology".

Dominic Taylor of Revival Press and myself at the launch.

The Trim launch of the collection was held on 8 June at 8pm in the Castle Arch Hotel, Trim. Nessa O'Mahony, poet and teacher, officially launched the collection.

Nessa O'Mahony launching The Age of Glass

Nessa and Iggy McGovern kindly read the collection and offered comments which appear on the back cover - extracts below.

I attended workshops by Nessa and Iggy and poems which developed from each workshop are included in the collection.

Michael Farry is, to use his own phrase, a poet who weaves ‘a web of mystery and belonging based on rough landmarks’. . . his gaze ranges far beyond the parochial; compassion, be it for refugees or the homeless, is a hallmark of his work. . . But he is also a poet of the domestic, and the tenderest poems celebrate family and the joys of grandparenting. The Age of Glass is a work of maturity and of wisdom.   Nessa O’Mahony

A self-professed amateur archeologist - the poet as digger - Michael Farry takes a forensic look at life’s abundance, and never better than when he faces up to his own mortality; physical, then, with a dash of the metaphysical, these poems will give you pause for thought, and leave you the stronger for it!  Iggy McGovern

Revival Press is a community publishing press and is the poetry imprint of The Limerick Writers' Centre. It was founded by managing editor Dominic Taylor in 2007. It has published over thirty poetry titles to date plus three anthologies including I Live in Michael Hartnett. Revival has also helped establish a number of local and national poets by publishing their first collections.

One of the aims of Revival Press is to make writing and publishing both available and accessible to all. It tries as much as possible to represent diverse voices and advocates for increased writing and publishing access to individuals and groups that have not typically had this access.

The collection, 12 euro, can be purchased from the Limerick Writers Centre website of using the PayPal link to the right.

Trim Launch of The Age of Glass.

The launch takes place in the Castle Arch Hotel, Trim at 8pm on Thursday 8 June. Everyone is welcome. I'm delighted that well-known poet and teacher, Nessa O'Mahony, is officially launching the collection.

“The Age of Glass is a work of maturity and of wisdom.”

Nessa O’Mahony

“these poems will give you pause for thought, 

and leave you the stronger for it!”

Iggy McGovern

A Poem for Mothers Day

For this Mothers Day. This poem will appear in my second poetry collection, due out in May.
Knocknashee is the mountain in south Sligo which appears in the image above. The poem was written as a result of this November climb.

Climbing Knocknashee
(For Margaret and Bab)

We picked the perfect weather.
No sun-tanned tourist jaunt,
but wind-swept, rain-scoured,

mission for memory, pilgrimage
proving our resolve, our ancestry
and gifting us something else,

the feel of wet earth underfoot,
the mark of real clay on hands,
cheeks burning with achievement.


We picked the perfect date,
All Souls. Their misty shapes
crisscrossed the dim patchwork,

moved between landmarks,
their birth and resting places -
cottages, schools, spring wells –

as they made their silent ways
to dances, doctors, chapels,
left by cemetery or railway station.


We picked the perfect place,
Knocknashee’s proud stump
demands attention, stranded

like an upturned ark, pointing
to something better somewhere
else. Crowned with cairns

and the worn-down wreckage
of unknown ages, a becalmed
benediction on life’s complexities.


We stood silent on the summit
wished you were there beside us.

You were there beside us.