Happy Christmas - A Pearse Nativity

This panel, depicting the Nativity, once formed part of a pulpit in St Mary's Church, Athlone. 

The sculptor was James Pearse, father of the Pearse brothers, Patrick and William.

It is now in the Pearse Museum, Rathfarnham.

The New Stable

Once I promised hand-carved figures,

personal, unpolished, to replace those

smiling shop-bought gauds we took out,

stood up, ignored, each Christmas.

I meant it, even thought it out.

Background Joseph in my father’s image,

Mary in mother’s – I can hear her giggle –

wise men the spit of ones we chatted with

on windswept hills in summers years ago.

I was always too busy, too careful.

Too old now, scared of leaving a half set,

a yearly reminder of loss, I made a stable

from memories of those makeshift sheds

which leaned against our houses, long gone.

I worked quickly, planned nothing,

sawed and drilled and fixed for six days,

rough wood for uprights, willow walls,

anxious that it look slipshod, authentic

shelter for animals and passing poor.

I finished it on Christmas Eve,

attached the willow roof, posted a photo

on Facebook but am still unsettled.

I promise next year, if there is a next year,

I’ll carve some figures, shepherds maybe

or a disconcerted donkey.

Michael Farry

Our Lady of Good Counsel Window, Trim

The rose window at the south end of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, Trim, is being illuminated during Advent and Christmas this year, 2019, making it visible from outside after dark. This window, installed in 1904 just after the church was officially opened, was never fully visible from the inside because of the organ. The parish priest of the time, Fr Michael Woods, and the architect, William Byrne, asked that only the top portion of the window contain stained glass since the rest would be obscured by the organ.

The subject of the window was Our Lady of Good Counsel, a popular devotion at that time as Pope Leo XIII had added that invocation to the litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary on 22 April 1903. The details of this window were being discussed in correspondence between Fr. Woods and Hardman and Co of Birmingham, who had already provided the sanctuary window in the church, from December 1903 and the window was ordered on 27 April 1904. 

While Fr Woods saved money by not including figurative stained glass in the lower part of the window he was anxious that the visible portion be of “very best and richest glass you can make”. He wrote to Hardman “It will occupy the most prominent part of the Church and will be in full view of people as they leave the Church. As the sun will be shining almost the whole day – the window facing due south, the colours will require to be deep and rich.”

The window has the Our Lady of Good Counsel image, Mary and the child Jesus, in the centre surrounded by the legend, “Mater boni consilii ora pro nobis”(Our Lady of Good Counsel, Pray for us). Five angels play different musical instruments in panels surrounding the centre. There are two angels in panels beneath this with thuribles paying homage to Our Lady and the tops of the three lights have foliage down to where the curved portion meets the straight vertical sides.

The window was erected in October 1904 at a cost £162. A donor contributed £130 stating that the price demanded by Hardman was excessive and Fr Woods paid the balance.

It seems that when the organ was installed some portions of the window without stained glass were visible and when Hardman’s fixer was installing the St. Bridget window in the church in 1914 stained glass was “introduced into West window to hide portions exposed by organ”.  This stained glass seems to consist of random pieces which don’t fit into the general scheme.

A photograph from the National Library of Ireland (above) shows the organ and the visible sections of the window. However a new organ, by Moser of Germany, installed in 1982 hid almost all the original window from the inside.

Lighting the window from inside is a great idea, allowing the window to be seen as Father Woods, who is buried at the side of the church, wished it to be seen.

Trim Poetry Competition 2020

I'm one of the judges of the Trim Poetry Competition 2020. Orla Fay, editor of Boyne Berries, is my co-judge.

Judging a poetry competition is very interesting, not only seeing the variety of styles and themes of the entries but also seeing how you react to them. I'm always aware of my own possible biases and prejudices. I once awarded a prize in a competition to a poem about the Solstice in spite of my having read more than my fill of poor poems on that theme. It was the exception, an excellent Solstice poem.

When you have a co-judge it's even more interesting. In our case each judge reads all the entries and comes up with a shortlist of 20. It's amazing how different these can be. Then the fun starts, the discussion, the advocacy, the submissions, the wins, until finally an agreed shortlist of ten is produced.

With Glen Wilson, winner of the inaugural Trim Poetry Competition 2019.

I'm looking forward to this year's deliberations so get your entries in! The competition opened on 1 December 2019 and closes on 12 February 2020. Entries are only accepted online by email to this address: trimpoetry@gmail.com. Entry Fee: €5 per poem or €10 for three poems.

Full details, including how to pay, are on the website/blog:

You will find all the rules there. Please follow the rules carefully or else we may not even see your poem. We judge anonymously of course and I make a rule of never asking afterwards to see whose poems I rejected.

The shortlist of ten will be announced towards the end of February 2020, included in Boyne Berries 27 and on the Trim Poetry Festival blog. Shortlisted poets only will be notified by email and invited to read their poems at Trim Poetry Festival, Co. Meath, Ireland, on Saturday afternoon 14 March 2020. The prize for the winner is 500 euro.  Two runners-up will receive 100 euro each.

Boyne Berries March 2020

Boyne Writers Group has decided to make their journal, Boyne Berrries, an annual publication from issue 27, March 2020. From 2006 until 2019 Boyne Berries was published twice yearly in Spring and Autumn but increases in printing costs and in postage charges has meant that it was has become more difficult to sustain two issues a year.

So we decided to publish one issue a year to coincide with Trim Poetry Festival to be held on 13 & 14 March 2020. The issue will include the ten shortlisted poems from the poetry competition which will open very shortly.

The submission period for Boyne Berries 27 opened on Saturday 23 November 2019 and closes on Wednesday 1 January 2020 at midnight. The full submission details are on the Boyne Berries Blog. 

The main rules are that poems should be no more than 40 lines long while fiction and prose should be no more than 1000 words. A short biographical note should be included and this should be brief, no more than 50 words.

One of the things which really annoys an editor is when in spite of such rules, writers submit much longer biographies. I've even had writers send long bios and suggest that I, the then editor, cut them down to size. No thanks!

Anne Tannam will be the poet in residence for the 2020 Trim Poetry Festival and the Poetry Competition will open on 1 December 2019 and close on 12 January 2020.

LitLab at Ardee Baroque

Ardee Baroque festival is one of the important early music festivals in Ireland. It has played host to some of the finest Irish and international artists of this genre and had many memorable and thrilling performances. It has, over its fifteen years, built up a loyal audience.

Ardee Baroque returns for its sixteenth year with a programme of some of the most popular and loved works by Handel, Vivaldi, Gluck, Back and even Irish composer Turlough O’Carolan. Whether you’re a seasoned baroque music fan or someone completely new to it, this year’s Festival is tailored to provide entertainment for all.

The festival takes place this weekend, Friday 22 November to Sunday 24 November 2019. Full details of the Festival are available on the Ardee Baroque Festival website. 

LitLab writing group is delighted to be associated with Ardee Baroque having been invited to read at the festival for the last four years. This year the LitLab reading will be on Saturday 23 November at 2 pm in Ardee Library. We will read from our latest anthology “Where You May Find Yourself”. Entry Free.

Trim Stained Glass

My poem in the Meath Writers Circle 2019 Annual is titled Stained Glass St Patrick's Church Trim and is concerned with the wonderful stained glass windows by three great stained glass manufacturers, Meyer of Munich, Hardman of Birmingham and Earley of Dublin.

The windows were recently cleaned and restored.

This stanza below from the poem refers to the the martyred Blessed Oliver Plunkett, since canonised, by Earley, erected in 1921 at a cost of £76.

The picture is taken from the parish website which has excellent images of many of the windows.

The seventeenth century hangman pauses, noose 
cocked, sensing in the holiday of a heretic’s execution 
years of dragged-out discord, the tables turned,
criminal sainted, his head honoured in a high church. 
Here, aghast at consequences, he hesitates forever. 

Meath Writers Circle 2019 Magazine

Boyne Writers Group is by no means the only writers group in Trim. The longest established must be the Meath Writers Circle started by the late well-know Trim poet and writer, Tommy Murray. They meet monthly and for the last five years have published an annual magazine.

Frances Tallon of the Meath County Library Service launched the 2019 edition of the annual on Thursday 7 November in Trim Castle Hotel.

I was among the large attendance of friends and contributors, many of whom read their poems or stories. As the editor, Frank Murphy, says "The magazine includes both modern and traditional verse with articles on the healing power of music, short stories, pieces that are of historical interest, topical issues, children's poetry, performance poetry, lyrics with video links".

I was delighted to have my poem Stained Glass in St Patrick's Trim included. Others included are Peter Fallon, Tom French and Orla Fay and poems written by James Joyce, John Boyle O'Reilly and Tommy Murray are also included.

With more than sixty pages in A4 format it would make a great Christmas present.

Noel French on "Wolves in Dunboyne"

Eugene Kane reading with chairperson, William G Hodgins, and editor, Frank Murphy, looking on.

WATERFORD POETRY PRIZE 2019

I was delighted that my poem Lecture Near the Ambush Site was awarded third prize in the 2019 Waterford Poetry Prize. I went to Waterford for the presentation on 25 October which was part of the Waterford Writers Weekend/Imagine festival.

The Waterford  Poetry Prize is a little different. It is open to all writers currently living on the island of Ireland, there is no entry fee, and each entrant may submit one poem only. The first prize is €400 plus attendance at a designated writing course at the Molly KeaneWriters Retreat, Ardmore in 2019, second prize is €300 and third is €200. Prize winners also get accommodation in Waterford for the night of the presentation.

The prize has emerged from the influence of the late Waterford writer Seán Dunne whose poetry still continues to inspire.

This year’s judge was Grace Wells who spoke at the presentation about the judging process and the winning poems. I’ve rarely heard more comprehensive and insightful remarks by the judge of a poetry competition. It was clear that Grace spent time with the poems and appreciated the craft and intent of the poet in each case.

The three prize winning poems are quite different in style, form and theme. First prize went to Noel Howley for his poem, Clare Wedding Lore. This has a great opening: Driving West along the old road, into a poem/you said; and then records eight saying with references to time, the weather, relationships, life and death. In one section he imagines a wonderful alliance of Poseidon and the Child of Prague. The poem ends with another great line: At the End of the Land we walked backwards all the way home.

Second prize went to Molly Twomey for her poem, Cassandra. This is a most impressive poem about the current climate crisis, titled for the Trojan prophetess who could foretell the future but nobody would believe her prophecies. What is most impressive is that in twelve lines she creates an apocalyptic vision in the language of pastoral, rural poetry. Gannets will break their necks,/ diving for sardines that no longer exist. She shows, doesn’t preach in spite of using the word preach in the poem.

My own poem, Lecture Near the Ambush Site, is a reflection on writing history about the war of independence period and dealing with tragic incidents, the long lasting effects of which are usually skipped over. How many families grieved for so long over those killed on all sides in that period? Grace Wells said that the poem’s attempt to mix the present and the past was successful and she liked the last line especially: I stopped, could say no more.

Thanks to the judge, Grace Wells, the Waterford Arts Officer, Margaret Organ, and all concerned with the competition and the Waterford Writers Weekend. It was a most enjoyable and worthwhile visit.

Photo Above: Prizewinners Molly, Noel and myself in the front with the Mayor of Waterford. Grace Wells and Arts Officer Margaret Organ behind.

Writing Home Anthology

I've just got a copy of this new anthology from Dedalus Press, selected and edited by Pat Boran  and Chiamaka Enyi-Amadi, from an open call which drew hundreds of submissions. Contributors hail from all over the world and most now live in Ireland.

I love the sense of unease which surrounds the volume, the awkwardness as regards titles and themes reflected in its frequent use of quotation marks. The subtitle is The 'New Irish' Poets and the blurb on the website says "Poets from the ‘new Irish communities’, the ‘hyphenated Irish’, the Irish of mixed cultural, linguistic or ethnic origins, are all represented"

Pat Boran in his editorial deals with this, saying sensibly "a little unease is not unusual (or entirely useless) at the start of a journey". He deals especially with the general theme of the anthology, 'home'. Those of us who are internal migrants, if that is the correct term, know exactly how complicated the term 'home' can be.

The fifty poets in this anthology are generally polished practitioners and have histories of publication behind them. The wide range of styles and approaches to the general theme makes it a most entertaining read. The poets come from all over the world, some have English as their native language, others are writing in a second language, only a few poems included are translations.

I like the way the anthology is put together. White space is cut down, poems do not have pages to themselves, poems start at the bottom of pages and continue over, all giving the impression of trying to fit in as many as possible. I also like the fact that some poets have one poem while others have more - I think nine is the record - giving the impression that the poem's the thing.

It's difficult to pick out individual poets but I loved the poems by Polina Cosgrove - "the Russian girl with an Irish surname/ Who was a Russian girl with a Jewish surname/ Who was a Russian girl with a Russian surname/ Who once spent nine months in the belly of/ An Armenian girl with a Russian surname". I especially like Polina's use of repetition in "Say Yes" and "My Name Is".

I like the fact that many of the poems are a little less than positive about the new home Ireland. For instance Bogusia Wardein, a frequent visitor to Ireland, who regards Galway as her "literary home" can still be a sharp critic. Her "From the West Coast" is a sad and humourous look at the Irish from the outsider's eye. "People ask me how I am but don't wait for the answer" "After drinking they mark their territories by spewing here and there". "People call towers castles, hills mountains, and greens parks".

Her "I consider My Home Planet" makes comparisons between a perfect place and Ireland: "For fourthly they say what they mean/ For fifthly they mean what they say" though there is more than a hint that this perfection might actually be less interesting.

Art Ó Súilleabháin, a former work colleague of mine, brought up in Boston, is also here with two poems dealing with outsiders. Art mentions being published in our magazine, Boyne Berries, in his bio which is nice. As editor of Boyne Berries I published poems by another contributor Landa Wo, way back in issues 2 and 4.

All in all a most interesting read, well worth a read. More details on the website.

Boyne Berries and Kintsugi

According to Wikipedia "Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise."

It has become a fashionable term, taken up by some self-help and popular psychology gurus but the basic idea is as old as the hills and worldwide. I remember when you could buy pot menders to fix metal containers.

Boyne Berries 26 will be launched on Thursday, 24th October at 8 pm in The Castle Arch Hotel, Trim. Co Meath and the cover has a great image by Rory O'Sullivan on the topic. The launch will be performed by poet Jean O'Brien who I understand has a poem on Kintsugi included.

A special feature of the issue is the inclusion of the poems shortlisted for Trim Poetry Competition 2019. Contributors to Boyne Berries 26 will read on the night. All welcome. Tea and coffee served.

I wrote a poem called Kintsugi in response to a prompt from Sophie in our online workshop in Spring 2017. It was then published in the anthology Poems to Keep edited by Janice Dempsey in 2017.

Kintsugi 

Her scribbled prescription was a pledge
not of cure but easement,
like that cardboard wedge
under our dining room table
or the taped glasses of the shopkeeper
who dished out aspirin in Coolaney.

Waiting in the pharmacy I considered
mother’s dentures, grandad’s truss,
the wooden hand great grandfather wore,
all the crucial repairs we carry with us,
sticking plasters on our cracks
patches on our punctures, our fractures
held together by judicious mending,
golden joinery, the beauty in broken things.

Michael Farry

SiarScéal Festival 2019

SiarScéal is a historical, literary, bilingual festival hosted annually and inspired by the culture and heritage of County Roscommon and the west in general, held annually in the library in Roscommon town. The festival includes the annual Hanna Greally Literary Awards, and this year I was lucky enough to be the overall winner with my poem The Burma Road Blues, about the now disused Collooney - Claremorris railway line.

On the Friday evening the festival featured the launch of the Beneath Western Skies exhibition, which featured poetry from a number of primary schools including Bunnanaddan NS in Sligo and photography and poetry by Anni Wilton Jones. This exhibition is going on tour to local libraries.

On Saturday, 12 October I attended the prize-giving and readings. It was great to see the good attendance, meet writers from all over the country and see the enthusiasm the organizers bring to the event. Well done to Gwen McNamara Bond and all involved.

After the official opening by the leas-cathaoirleach of Roscommon County Council, adjudicator Faye Boland announced the results. Faye, pictured below, is the author of the poetry collection, Peripheral, and she was overall winner at the Hanna Greally International Literary Awards in 2017. She spoke with great insight about my poem and recalled a grandfather who had similar experiences and empathy with railway lines.

It was great to hear many of the other winning and listed pieces, prose and poetry and also to see that County Sligo was well represented by Going Back by Anne McManus and Borrowed Time by Maureen Harkin. Well done also to Louise G Cole, joint winner in the story section.

One of the children's poems on display.

The Bangor Literary Journal

The Bangor Literary Journal is a bimonthly online literary journal which showcases outstanding poetry, flash fiction and artwork from established and emerging writers and artists.  The journal is run by Amy Louise Wyatt and Paul Daniel Rafferty in Bangor, Co. Down.

The first online issue launched in February 2018 and the most recent one has just been made available online. This is issue 10 and is the Aspects Festival 2019 issue, coinciding with that festival and includes all the shortlisted and winning poems from The Seventh Annual Bangor Poetry Competition, including this year’s winner, Gaynor Kane’s poem ‘Firelighting’. 

The issue also has interviews with award winning poet Ross Thompson, renowned Bangor writer Lesley Allen and local historian Ian Wilson plus the usual selection of exceptional poetry, flash fiction, art and photography.

Amy and Daniel seem tireless in their organisational ability and their innovative competitions based in their unique and atmospheric gallery in Bangor. I've visited a couple of times, train to Belfast, train to Bangor, and enjoyed both visits. I had a shortlisted poem/artwork hanging in the gallery last year and a poem shortlisted again this year. I'm delighted to have the poem included in this issue.

There's also a great bookshop in Bangor, Bookends, not far from the train station.

Download the latest Bangor Literary Journal for free here.

Bailieborough Poetry Competition 2019 Results

The results of the Bailieborough Poetry Festival Competition 2019. 

The judge was Cavan Writer-in-Residence, Anthony J Quinn.

Winner: Christopher M James - ‘Janus’.
Runners Up: Giles Newington - ‘Dynamic Me’
                      John D Kelly - ‘The Missing Piece’

Congratulations to the winner and runners up and to the following who made the shortlist:
Orla Fay - ‘The Member of the Wedding.
Ruth Quinlan - ‘Eczema Herpeticum in The Limerick Regional’.
Eugene Platt - ‘Thank You Note to my New Wife’s Late Husband’.
Anne Tannam - ‘I’ll admit to’.
Kate Ennals - ‘Drafting a Poem in my Mother’s Old Diary’.

The announcement and presentation in Bailieborough Library on Saturday was a most enjoyable event. 

Thanks to those shortlisted poets who attended and read. Thanks also to the winner Christopher James who, though in Thailand, was able to read his poem for us through the wonders of modern technology.

Bailieborough Shortlist

The shortlist for the Bailieborough Poetry Competition has just been announced. The judge was Cavan Writer in Residence, Anthony J Quinn. Congratulations to the shortlisted poets.

The prize giving event and the readings will be held on next Saturday 5 October as part of the Bailieborough Poetry Festival in the Library Arts Space at 2.30pm.

The shortlist in no particular order:

Christopher James - Janus.
Giles Newington - Dynamic Me.
John D Kelly - The Missing Piece.
Orla Fay - The Member of the Wedding.
Ruth Quinlan - Eczema Herpeticum in The Limerick Regional
Eugene Platt - Thank You Note to my New Wife’s Late Husband.
Anne Tannam - I’ll admit to.
Kate Ennals - Drafting a Poem in my Mother’s Old Diary.

LitLab Anthology - Where You May Find Yourself

It's exciting when a large parcel arrives, especially when that parcel contains the just printed copies of your writers group latest anthology.

This morning copies of Where You May Find Yourself arrived and they look great. The work on this anthology has been going on over the last few months. We submitted poems to Anthony J Quinn, Cavan Writer in Residence who agree to edit the publication. He chose the poems to include, suggested a title and a cover image. There was some agonizing over commas and capitals and last lines but eventually all was agreed and sent to the printer.

The finished product looks great and Anthony has written a most interesting preface. "The LitLab writers, I have to say, are one of the least Keatsian collection of poets you are likely to meet, and I mean that in the best possible way. The poems in this anthology carry the wisdom and good-natured humour of longevity. They concentrate a lifetime of thinking and being." 

"These are poems by mature writers that aren’t an escape into the past but a means of slowing down and re-seeing the present, making this anthology a wonderful counter-balance to the quick thrills of social media and the internet."

This is the fourth anthology of members’ work. Previous anthologies were, Under A Thrupenny Moon, edited by Barbara Smith, in 2013, Between the Lines, edited by Julia Rice O’Dea, in 2015, and Frank Miller Stole my Girl, edited by Noel Monahan, in 2017.

Some of the poems included in this collection were first published in Poetry Ireland Review, The North, Crannóg, Stony Thursday Book and The Cormorant.

Some poems won prizes or were shortlisted in these competitions: Edgeworth Poetry Prize 2018, Padraic Colum Gathering Poetry competition 2018, Ledwidge Society Poetry Prize 2017 and Ilkley Poetry Competition 2017.

The cover photo is of Richard Cyril Duff, a Customs and Excise officer, father of LitLab member Honor Duff, at the Leitrim-Fermanagh border in the late 1920s.

The anthology will be launched at Bailieborough Poetry Festival on Friday 4 October and copies will be on sale there. It will also be possible to buy copies online on the festival site.

Bray Poetry Competition - The Winner

I'm obviously delighted to have won the Bray Poetry Competition 2019 and to have read the poem at the Culture Night event in Bray on Friday 20 September. Thanks to the organizers who did such a fine job of organisation, notifying those long- and shortlisted and publicizing those and the results. 

Thanks also to the judge, Nessa O'Mahony, for picking out my poem from the more than 200 entered. These competitions are judged anonymously and when entering I replaced two local Sligo placenames  in the original with more generic placenames just in case.

Well done to those on the long and short lists and especially to the other prizewinners, Mark Ward who got second and the joint thirds, Evan Costigan and Catherine Ann Cullen.

I've entered lots of competitions and judged one or two. There are those who talk about a "competition poem", as if a particular style or form is more likely to win. I don't really accept that, having seen the variety of winners in various competitions over the years.

My Bray winning poem was sent out previously twelve times, to competitions and journals and only got longlisted once before. All this means is that it didn't meet the standards of all those other judges which is quite understandable. If you believe a poem is good enough, keep sending it out. I did enter two other poems in the Bray competition and they failed utterly. A special mention of Catherine Anne Cullen who had two poems in the final shortlist of six - quite an achievement!

Having won this competition the poem isn't eligible for most other poetry competitions but is available to submit to journals and magazines as long as it is not published online. Bray have a policy of not publishing winners on their website to allow this.

Bray Literary Festival 2019 takes place next weekend, 27-29 September and the full and varied programme is well worth checking out online.

Poetry Competition Anthologies

I've just been reading my copy of What the Peacock Replied, the anthology of the winners and shortlisted poems from the Single Poem category of the Brian Dempsey Memorial Prize 2019, with poems by Dawn Gorman (winner of the Pamphlet Category); Fiona Cartwright (1st Prize); Terry Jones; (2nd Prize); Steven Jackson (3rd Prize) and over 40 other poets.

This competition is an annual event organized by the wonderful Dempsey and Windle team, publishers, poets, event and competition organizers, based in Guilford, UK.

There is an introduction by the judge, Anna Saunders in this case, with general comments and comments on the prizewinning works.

It's most interesting to see the range and variety of the poems chosen. There is no suggestion here that the judge favoured a single style or form of poetry. Poems rhyme or not, are formal or free even experimental, long and short - the shortest a great four line poem by John Bevan. Poems reference popular culture or classical works and authors - Facebook, Barbie, Penelope, Edward Hopper. Some poems even have explanatory subtitles.

My shortlisted poem included in the anthology is The Friary Bell one of those based on the Blackfriary archaeology dig in Trim. Inclusion in the anthology and a free copy was one of the attractions of the competition.

It is important for competition organizers to state clearly in the rules if winning and shortlisted poems are to be published. If they are it rules them out of other competitions and publications. In our Bailieborough Poetry Competition the rules clearly state "The shortlisted poems may be published on the Bailieborough Poetry Festival website" and they usually are.

In the Trim Festival Competition earlier this year we didn't include any such note so when we decided to include the shortlisted poems in the forthcoming Boyne Berries journal we had to ask permission of the authors. I think most agreed. Boyne Berries 26 will be launched on Thursday 3 October.

Next year we intend to state from the start that shortlisted poems will be published in Boyne Berries.

I see the Cathal Bui competition in Belcoo have also published a small anthology of shortlisted poems for their competition, 2019 CATHALBUI POETRY COMPETITION COLLECTION. In this case this wasn't made clear at the beginning so some shortlisted poets aren't included. I had no problem allowing my shortlisted Vertigo at Killadoon to be included.

Poetry Competitions

I'm lucky to be shortlisted in two poetry competitions at the moment, The Bangor Poetry Competition and the Bray Festival Poetry Competition.

The Bray prize-giving ceremony is on Culture Night, Friday 20th, at 7.30 pm in Bray Town Hall where the three winners will be announced. There are only six poems in the Bray shortlist which makes it even more special having one among them.

The 15 shortlisted poems in the Bangor, Co Down, competition will be on display at The Blackberry Path Art Studios in Bangor Co Down from Thursday 25th September until Sunday 29th September 2019 as part of Aspects Irish Literary Festival and will be voted on by the public during the exhibition.

Winner, runner up and placed poets will be revealed at The Bangor Literary Journal Launch at Fealty’s Back Bar Wed 2nd Oct 7-9 pm.

In both cases shortlisted poets are invited to read at the events. Both these competitions also have good online presences and have publicized the shortlistings and events very well. There are other competitions where entrants struggle to find out if there is a shortlist and who has made the shortlist. This in spite of having paid a not inconsequential entrance fee.

It's always nice to be shortlisted, it means someone has picked out your work from among many many good entries. Having judged a number of poetry competitions, sometimes with others, I realize how much depends on the judges own taste and preferences. So thanks to the judges and organizers in these two competitions and well done to all those shortlisted.

Skylight 47 Launch of Issue 12

I attended the launch of Skylight 47 in Galway on Sunday evening. It was a most enjoyable event, a large audience, lots of great readings and tea, coffee and cakes.

This was issue 12 of the newspaper style poetry publication. I was delighted to have a poem accepted for this special issue. For the first time there was a theme - Language, Landscape, and Migration)- and my poem fitted in under language.

The issue also included a supplement with space for unpublished writers, individuals or writing groups based in Galway City or County.

Skylight 47 has always shown an interest in writing groups and published a regular feature on groups from around the country, our group, Boyne Writers, was featured in one issue. This time they worked especially with some groups from Galway city and county as part of their Let the Stories be Told project helped by funding under the Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture Small Towns Big Ideas project. Three such groups got special assistance and facilitator time.

The three editors, Bernie Crawford, Ruth Quinlan and Nicki Griffin, are to be congratulated on their work in planning and carrying out the project and on the finished journal which is a delight to read.

My poem, which I read at the launch, concerns the word "Terminus" which I used when taking grandchildren to the end of the Luas line. An interesting word especially to an older person who has for one reason and another been visiting a number of medical establishments in the past couple of years.

More pictures from the launch on the Facebook page. You can buy the issue on the Skylight 47 site here.

Bailieborough Poetry Festival 2019

Bailieborough Poetry Festival takes place on the weekend of October 3 – 5, 2019.

Bailieborough Poetry Competition closing date is this Friday, 6 September. Details here.

Thursday 3 October will see the official opening at 7pm in Bailieborough Library of the festival and of the collaboration between LitLab writers and Virginia artist Jim McPartlin.

On Friday 4 October LitLab's latest poetry anthology will be launched. This is edited by current Cavan Writer in Residence, Anthony J Quinn. The featured poet will be Moya Cannon.

Saturday morning has two poetry workshops, by Pat Boran and Moya Cannon. Booking online.

In the afternoon Anthony J Quinn, this years judge, will announce the winners of the Bailieborough Poetry Competition and shortlisted poets will read. This will be followed by a reading from his published work by Anthony and, after a short break, a talk on developing oneself as a writer also by Anthony.

The Festival concludes on Saturday evening with readings by Kate Ennals and Pat Boran followed by an Open Mic and some music.

Full details on website at present or very soon.

The Caiplie Caves by Karen Solie

What I'm reading at the moment - The Caiplie Caves by Karen Solie (Picador)

 

In her fifth collection, Canadian poet Karen Solie uses as a theme the Caiplie Caves on the shore of the Firth of Forth in Scotland. In poems which flit between modern times and her exploration of the area and the chaos between the fall of Rome and the emergence of modern Europe, she contemplates life, grief, confusion, faith, among the realities of war and power.

The poems are written in Solie’s own voice and also in the voice of St Ethernan, the seventh-century Irish missionary to Scotland who retreated to these caves to decide whether to establish a priory on nearby May Island or pursue a life of solitude, a choice between the active and the contemplative life.

One of the many attractions and delights of the collection is the use it makes of found material, early and modern Christian texts, natural history books, Hegel, St Augustine, Barthes, even The Invertebrate Fauna of the Firth of Forth, 1881, by George Leslie and William A Herdman.

This makes for a glorious mix of language and tone, with a refreshing breadth of vision and reference. I saw Karen Solie read at the Cork International Poetry Festival a couple of years ago and was impressed.

from The Desert Fathers

With or without a bindle of crystal meth,

they made their anchorage in Egypt’s

Wadi El Natrun, or the dismantled

Marine Corps training base of Slab City, California,

hard skills in transition, taking losses

and burning, if not with a sensible fire,

in the pride of specialized knowledge.

Snakeman relocates the red diamond rattlesnake

and northern Mojave rattlesnake

from residents’ trailers to his own to live

alongside him with the scorpions and guard dogs;

it’s tough to have riches and not love them.

St. Anthony sold his land, gave the money to

the poor, yet in his Outer Mountain sanctuary cried

I desire peace, but these bad thoughts

will not leave me.

It’s interesting to compare a version of this poem published online in The Walrus with the version published in the book – lots of changes in line breaks and some deletions.

I’m particularly interested in her use of found material because my next collection, to be published 2020 I hope will contain a number of “found” poems. It can be difficult to know exactly how to attribute various borrowings. Solie does this by the inclusion of comprehensive “Notes” at the back of the book. It seems to works well and doesn’t break the flow of the text but I did find myself checking now and then to see if a line or stanza were borrowed and from where.

August At The Edge Cavan

At the Edge is a regular reading series organised by Kate Ennals with assistance from Cavan Arts Office. It is held in Cavan Library on Tuesday evenings at 6.30. 

It has build up a dedicated and knowledable audience many of whom also participate in the Open Mic which follows the readings.

There are usually two or three featured readers, well-know poets or prose writers, and the list of those who have read there is impressive.

Last evening, 27 August the new season started with a well-attended and most enjoyable event featuring four writers. Kate Ennals, the organiser, introduced the readers as "neighbours" coming as they did from neighbouring counties.

The writers were Glen Wilson, Jackie Gorman, Anthony J Quinn and Jessamine O’Connor, poets apart from crime writer Anthony who confessed to really wanting to be a poet. His crime writing does have a lyrical touch about it, in spite of the dark deeds he narrates.

The poetry was great, as was the delivery and the audience really appreciated the variety of subject matter and tone. Well done to all concerned!

Keep an eye on Kate Ennals Facebook page for details of the next reading.

Belfast City Hall - Windows

My first visit to Belfast City Hall last Friday was eyeopening. I was very impressed by the stained glass windows, a wide range of themes and styles.

The centenary window was unveiled in 2006 to celebrate the many successes and achievements witnessed by City Hall during the previous 100 years.

"Included in the window are Titanic and the Harland and Wolff cranes . . . Achievements in the fields of sport, music and literature are also represented and the City Hall mural is represented by the John Luke inspired landscape in which we see a Massey Ferguson tractor and an ‘Electric Hare’ invented by James McKee of OD Cars Ltd. The multicoloured tree reflects the many different traditions and cultures found within Belfast."

More on the windows on the official site.

Designed by Ann Smyth, the window was fabricated and installed by CWS Design in collaboration of Karl Harron. The window was unveiled in 2006.

I was most interested to see the writers honoured in the window, detail below. I love the way Sinead Morrissey and Nick Laird are squeezed in at the end of the shelf!

Corran Herald 2019 - The Philosophy of Pat Gallagher

The Ballymote Heritage Weekend saw the launch of issue 52 the annual journal, The Corran Herald" published by the group. This, in over 90 pages, contains academic articles, popular history, photographs, poems and stories.

This journal has been published since 1985 and the group's website has copies of all the issues, except the most recent. There is a wealth of history in these pages.
http://ballymoteheritage.com/corran-previous-issues/

This year I contributed a poem called "The Philosophy of Pat Gallagher". Pat, pictured here, was my great grandfather and was secretary of the local branch of the United Irish League from 1901 until 1915. He contributed short report on club meetings regularly to the Sligo Champion. I took pieces from these reports and created a "found" poem from them.

I don't know if it works as a poem but it does give a flavour of the rhetoric of the times. Brief extract below.

"Each man must pledge himself to do a man’s part.
The people must be prepared for any sacrifice, even
life, any time their privileges and liberties are
  being tampered with.

Any member absenting himself without a satisfactory
explanation will be struck off and a new member put in his place.
We will not readily let down a man who is a consistent
  Nationalist, and his father before him.

He was a loving son and a faithful comrade, as was
shown on last Sunday when sixty-four young
men wearing white sashes carried his remains
to the grave"

The Corran Herald is on sale in shops in Ballymote and in bookshops in Sligo town.

Ballymote Heritage Weekend

I was delighted to be asked to give a talk at Ballymote Heritage weekend on the August Bank Holiday Monday. My talk on Sligo, especially South Sligo, in 1919 was very well attended and indications were that the audience enjoyed it.

Many people there were related to persons I mentioned in the talk and had information to add to what I knew. This list of contributions to the Dáil Loan published in the Sligo Champion in 1919 before the loan was declared illegal caused an amount of interest.

This was the 30th such weekend organized by the Ballymote Heritage Group and was as successful as all the others. http://ballymoteheritage.com/

The weekend also saw the launch of the annual journal published by the group, "The Corran Herald". This, in over 90 pages, contains academic articles, popular history, photographs, poems and stories.

This journal has been published since 1985 and the group's website has copies of all the issues, except the most recent. There is a wealth of history in these pages.
http://ballymoteheritage.com/corran-previous-issues/

The Corran Herald is on sale in shops in Ballymote and in bookshops in Sligo town.

The Dogs of Humanity - Colin Dardis

Colin Dardis' latest publication, the chapbook The Dogs of Humanity has just been published by Fly on the Wall Press. The Belfast launch takes place this evening, 8 August, as part of Eastside Arts Festival, in the Eastside Visitors Centre, 402 Newtownards Road, Belfast.

This is an impressive collection for which I was delighted to write a review and provide a short note for the back cover: The voice in these poems is insightful, urgent but compassionate making the collection an enjoyable but unsettling read, with its call for perception, for engagement with the realities of the human condition and the lost souls of the early twentieth first century. - Michael Farry

My full review can be read here on Neon Books.

You can order The Dogs of Humanity online here - print | kindle

The cover is a detail from Brueghel's Studies of Dogs (c.1616).

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