Sligo Rovers - Manchester United

Great day in Sligo yesterday. Sligo Field Club annual Summer Conference celebrating 400 years of the Borough of Sligo; great speakers and lots of friendly faces. I did sneak away for a couple of hours to watch Sligo Rovers beat Shamrock Rovers 3-0. Always great to beat Shams but 3-0! That's special.

Jessica's report here.

Today thinking of another soccer team which also plays in red. In honour of the day that's in it, and the probable football results in England, here's a link to my United poem which is included in my forthcoming collection.

A supporter since the Munich crash of 1958, I've been to Old Trafford only once.
Poet, George Szirtes, wrote recently about his support for United, more eloquently than I could.

The Road Not Taken

 

One of the central things about the book I mentioned recently, Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of Edward Thomas by Matthew Hollis was his discussion of the relationship between Edward Thomas and Robert Frost (pictured above). On the outbreak of war Frost returned to the USA and asked Thomas to join him. Thomas, who found it difficult to make up his mind about anything, vacillated between going to the USA and joining the army.

Frost send Thomas a poem in 1915 called Two Roads, soon to be rechristened The Road Not Taken and often called The Road Less Travelled. It finishes:

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Since its composition The Road Not Taken has often been read as an affirmation of individual choice and being different, choosing a different road to the rest of us. But it was never intended to be read in this way by Frost. Thomas read it as a criticism of his indecision and reacted angrily. He did join the army and was killed in 1917.

If you read the poem carefully there are clues that it’s not as straightforward as you think. The two paths, he wrote, had been worn "really about the same", and "equally lay / In leaves no step had trodden black", showing the reader that neither road was more or less travelled, and that the choices may in some sense be equal. Anyway no matter which road you take, it will make all the difference.

If you read the poem to a large group of people and ask them which road would they choose, I guarantee than over 90 per cent will choose the less travelled one. Hmmm! How can it be less travelled so? This is the same as that feeling everyone has that they are different to the rest of us, the common herd.

I’m choosing the road more travelled on the basis that there will be very little traffic on it!


Good review of the book with a discussion of this poem here.

Doghouse Books Poetry Launches

A very busy week coming up later this month for Doghouse Books.

21st May 2012
DOGHOUSE BOOKS invite you to the launch of "Asking for Directions" by Michael Farry to be launched by Pat Dunne, novelist and broadcaster. Venue: Castle Arch Hotel, Trim, Co. Meath. Time: 8pm. Admission: free. All are welcome.

22nd May 2012
DOGHOUSE BOOKS invite you to the launch of "Rus in Urbe" by James Lawless to be launched by Catherine Murphy, Independent TD. Venue: Springfield Hotel, Leixlip, Co. Kildare. Time: 7.30pm. Admission: free. All are welcome.

23rd May 2012
DOGHOUSE BOOKS invite you to the launch of "The Angels' Share" by Barbara Smith to be launched by Enda Coyle-Greene, poet. Venue: The Basement Gallery, Dundalk Town Council, Crowe Street, Dundalk, Co. Louth. Time: 6pm. Admission: free. All are welcome.

Details of all the new publications and sample poems on the Doghouse website.

Boyne Berries Open for Submissions

Submissions of poetry and prose are now being accepted for Boyne Berries. The Boyne Writers Group publish this magazine of poetry and prose, twice a year, in March and September.

The first issue of the magazine was published in March 07 and issue No 11 was launched in March 2012.


Submissions will be open until the end of July 2012. Material from these submissions will be included in issue 12, September 2012, and issue 13, March 2013.

Submission details in the lower part of this page. Please read carefully and obey!

It's always a good idea to read a copy of a magazine before you submit. You can purchase a copy of Boyne Berries online by using the Buy Now button on this page.

My Poetry Collection - Asking for Directions

Now that information about my new poetry collection has appeared on the Doghouse website I feel I can proclaim its imminent launch.

Asking for Directions will be launched in the Castle Arch Hotel, Trim at 8pm on Monday 21 May by writer and broadcaster Pat Dunne. All welcome! I'm very pleased with the cover. The picture, of a scene in Sligo, was taken by my nephew Peter Farry.

And here's my picture among all the other notable Doghouse authors!

Prole Laureate Poetry Competition Results & Poems

The winners of the Prole Laureate Poetry Competition have been announced on the website. The winning poems, including my third placed poem, are displayed along with the judge’s comments. Very interesting!

Winner was Marilyn Francis and second place was won by Cathy Bryant.

The poems are also printed in issue 7 of the magazine which can be purchased here. You can also add comments on the poems on the magazine's blog here.

The wonderful judge was Andrew McMillan.

Matthew Hollis - Edward Thomas

I've just finished reading Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of Edward Thomas by Matthew Hollis (Faber & Faber). Matthew Hollis is an editor at Faber and a poet and was tutor on an Arvon course I attended in Yorkshire some years ago.

This is a fascinating read, partly because Thomas is such a complex character and partly because Hollis tells the story so well. He places the poet within the literary scene of the times with much reference to and discussion of contemporary writers including small parts for Yeats, Eliot and Pound.

Edward Thomas had scraped a living as a reviewer and as a writer of twenty prose books, many of them travel books. Though he had a reputation as an important critic he despaired of making a living as a writer and was very unhappy in his marriage. In 1908 he even considered suicide.

He then met the American poet Robert Frost, who had come to England to make a fresh start as a poet and under his influence started writing poetry at the end of 1914 believing like Frost that poetry should employ the natural cadences of ordinary speech.

On the outbreak of war Frost returned to the USA and after months of indecision Thomas joined the army and was killed on 9 April 1917 at the start of the battle of Arras. His first collection of poetry was published six months after his death. Since then Edward Thomas' reputation as a poet has continued to grown in stature.

The book is a great read, full of wonderful insights into the pre-period. Francis Ledwidge even gets a mention though few on this side of the Irish Sea would have called him a "republican" as Hollis does in the book!

The book won the the 2012 Costa Biography section award.
Loads of reviews online including this one.
The author reads from the book here.
Adlestrop is probably his most well-known poem.

Goldsmith International Festival - Poetry Competition

This is always an enjoyable festival to attend. The outdoor reading near Goldsmith's birthplace in Longford on the Sunday is usually great featuring two well-known poets and readings by the poetry prizewinners as well. Above: Richard Halperin reading three years ago. I've had some success in the past in the competition, getting placed on two occasions. 

You can find some details of this year's event and an entry form for the competition on the website. Poems must be unpublished and no more than 35 lines long.

This years' festival will be held on the weekend of 1-3 June and the theme is Citizens of the World - What can my country do for me?

Annual Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Weekend

Annual Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Weekend, Sat 28th - Sun 29th April 2012. Director: Noel Monahan (right).

This course is suitable for beginners and those who have written some poetry. The director welcomes all emerging poets both national and foreign nationals to this creative weekend.
The programme will deal with all aspects of Poetry Writing covering the following headings:
• poetic inspiration
• responding to a poem
• finding a form for your poem
• arranging your work on the page
• rhythm and line breaks
• editing a poem (the workshop will take each participant’s poems and assist with editing the same.)
• getting your poetry published.

Full details here on the website.

Noel Monahan has published five collections of poetry. His most recent publication was Curve of The Moon published by Salmon poetry in 2010. He has kindly read my new collection and has contributed some generous comments which are included on the back cover.

Prole Laureate Competition - Third Prize!

Another Yipee!! My poem The Truth has won third prize in the Prole Laureate competition, 2012, a competition run by the UK based poetry and prose magazine. The judge was the wonderful young poet Andrew McMillan.

The Truth is a fairly recent poem of mine, not in the forthcoming collection, which goes down very well at readings. However I did doubt its impact on the page and indeed it was not even long-listed in a recent Irish competition. Just shows taste varies enormously in poetry.

The results may not yet be posted on the competition page but are announced in the magazine. The three prizewinning poems are printed in the latest issue of Prole with the judge's comments. Winner was Marilyn Francis and second place was won by Cathy Bryant, both young, UK and female.

I won't print my poem here (buy the magazine!!) but here's what the judge, Andrew, said of it:

A lesser poet would have taken pages, or maybe even a full collection, to say what Farry distils here into a beautifully simple poem. Ideas of genealogy, ageing and truth are handled with great care and given the space they need to breathe in the short, sparse lines. The ending is heartbreaking and well earned through a poem which builds itself on allusion, on half-told stories, on broken trusts; what sort of style could better imitate the life so many of us have known?

I'm delighted and flattered. You can order the magazine, hardcopy or pdf version on this page. A bumper issue, over 100 pages, with high quality prose and poetry.

Michael Slavin at the Boyne Readings

A good night at the first of this year's Boyne Readings and Open Mic. Michael Slavin gave a very interesting account of the background and genesis of his books, The Book of Tara, Great Tara Legends, The Ancient Books of Ireland, Showjumping Legends Ireland 1868-1998, and read extracts from each. He would never be a poet or novelist, he told us, he wrote books which he felt needed to be written to supply a want.

His enthusiasm for his subjects was clear and his readings and explanations were warm, friendly and well-received. Quite a number of his books were sold on the night. Michael pictured above signing copies of his books.

The Open Mic was great with many members of the Boyne Writers Group reading new pieces and older pieces, some of which were changed since we last heard them. Tommy Murray of the Meath Writers Circle read from his new collection, Swimming with Dolphins (Lapwing) which will be launched in Navan Library on Thursday 24 May.

I read two poems, one of which was the translation of the sixteenth century elegy by Tadhg Dall O'Higgins. A former school principal near Trim, Peadar Ó Liatháin, well known to most of those in attendance, had died earlier that day so this was in the nature of a salute to him.

Peadar was a native of Cúil Aodha, Co. Cork and an Irish poet of note. He was cléireach (secretary) of the annual Dáimhscoil Mhúscraí Uí Fhloinn and wrote An Cheist which other poets were expected to respond to in poetry.

Boyne Readings and Open Mic - April

Boyne Writers Group are resuming their Boyne Readings and Open Mic events over the next three months. The events will take place in the Coffee Shop of the Knightsbridge Retirement Complex, Longwood Road, Trim. Park in the main car park to the right and enter by the main entrance. The Coffee Shop is on the immediate left.

The featured reader on this Thursday, 19 April, will be Meath resident, writer Michael Slavin (right). Michael has been an equestrian correspondent since the 1960s. He also commentated on show jumping events for RTÉ Radio Sport.

He is the author of Showjumping Legends Ireland 1868-1998, The Ancient Books of Ireland, The Book of Tara and Ambassadors on Horseback: the Irish Army Equitation School. He now runs an antiquarian book shop at the Hill of Tara.

The evening, which starts at 8pm will include an Open Mic where members of the public and read their own work, poetry, prose and there will be tea, coffee and biscuits.

Admission is 5 euro.

Featured reader for May will be Trim poet, Tommy Murray of the Meath Writers Circle, and for June, Orla Fay of the Boyne Writers Group.

Making a Difference – Stories of Inspirational Teachers

Some time ago I was asked for a piece about an inspirational teacher. I wrote a short piece on Fr. Tom Lynch who taught me History and English in St Nathy's College, Ballaghaderreen in the late 60s. The piece has been included in the recently published book Making a Difference – Stories of Inspirational Teachers. My piece is called A Down-to-Earth Approach to Learning. I actually forget if the title is mine but it does reflect Fr. Tom's approach to learning, history and literature.

I also sent them a poem of mine called Retiring Teacher, originally published in Revival Journal, Limerick and this is also included in the book.

This from the publishers' website:
The newly released, Making a Difference – Stories of Inspirational Teachers, is aimed at all educators, whether they be teachers or parents to reflect on the powerful formative impact their direction, encouragement and commitment has on the lives of their learners.

The book has stories from over sixty contributors, each giving a personal account of the impact of a teacher on their lives. There are contributions from well known people such as Ruairí Quinn, Brendan O’Carroll & Terry Prone but also from people who have no public profile but whose lives have been equally impacted by exceptional teachers.
The book costs 15 euro. some pages, though not mine, can be read on the website.

Ink Slingers Creative Writing Hour

Finding myself with a spare hour yesterday, Saturday, in Dublin and having mentioned the Irish Writers' Centre here I dropped in and joined the free Ink Slingers Creative Writing Hour there 1.30-2.30. A most useful and enjoyable experience.

There were about twenty participants, none of whom I knew and the facilitator/teacher was Sarah Maria Griffin who contributed a poem to the latest Boyne Berries though I didn't realise that until I came home. Her poem was called It's not cool to be broody at 23.

Sarah's first collection of poetry, Follies, was published by Lapwing in April last year. During 2011 she was sent to New York was part of Culture Ireland’s ‘Imagine Ireland’ initiative, to represent contemporary Irish performance poetry as part of the Glór Sessions. She is currently Writer-in-Residence at Collinstown Community College, Clondalkin.

The format of the workshop was simple. Sarah gave a writing prompt, participants wrote for roughly half an hour and then some read their efforts and Sarah commented.

The prompt was: use something worn by a fellow participant as a starting point for a poem or story. I used a crucifix which was worn by a lady and wrote a poem, remembering being in a huge religious goods "supermarket" in Turlock, California and though the place was full of crosses there wasn't a crucifix to be seen. These first two lines came out:
She specified a crucifix not a cross
"The body", she explained, "that's the difference"

Sarah's response to the readings was immediate and great, picking out the positive in each and suggesting development in some cases. Was that story about the old coat based on my coat I wonder?

Sarah will be participating in the 2012 Cúirt Over The Edge showcase reading takes place as part of this year's Cúirt International Festival of Literature at the Town Hall Theatre, Galway on Friday, April 27th, 3:00pm.

I understand next Saturday will be Sarah's last day as facilitator of the Ink Slingers Workshop. It continues after that with a new facilitator and the website will have the full information.

Creative Writing Courses 2012

The Irish Writers' Centre has just announced their new collection of Creative Writing Courses for this term. Whether you're a total novice or a burgeoning star who needs that extra nudge, they claim to have a course for you.

The weekly courses start soon and last 6 to 10 weeks. These include:
Finish Your Novel with Conor Kostick
Tales of the City: Short Fiction Workshop with Seán O'Reilly
Crime Writing with Arlene Hunt
Intermediate Creative Writing with Nessa O'Mahony
Journalism and New Media with Henry McDonald
Beginners' Creative Writing with Emer Martin
How To Write A Novel with Juliet Bressan
Poetry Workshop with Paul Perry

The Weekend Courses are one or two-day events:

Writing Popular Fiction with Sarah Webb
Writing Conceptual Poetry with Ira Lightman
Screenwriting for Beginners with Ferdia Mac Anna
Beginners' Creative Writing with John Maher
Short-Form Memoir with Molly McCloskey

The Poetry Workshop with Paul Perry entitled Beyond the Workshop sounds interesting.

In this eight-week ‘poetry lab’ we will discuss the elements of surprise and experiment in poetry and focus on the creation of new work and the revision of work-in-progress through the use of writing exercises and responses to readings. We will also look at issues relating to what comes beyond the poetry workshop and immerse ourselves in what Paul has developed as ‘the writing lab’. In this course, we will also start an on-line poetry blog, make our own poetry pamphlets and hold a reading.

As does the one-day Writing Conceptual Poetry with Ira Lightman (pictured above) on Saturday 19 May.

The workshop will feature exercises in collecting text and, if not "randomizing" one's own work, then making procedural selections that crack it open. Ira will run activities in double-column and multi-vocal poetry; devising and executing a concept to make a poem; using free software to make video and sound realizations of one's work and then tamper with it; and an exercise in writing a proposal to do a conceptual poem as an arts project, how to describe the work, sell it, budget for it, and show how it meets funding criteria.

Check the website for full details.

Writing Workshop

At our AGM Sunday Miscellany expert, Caroline, suggested we have a series of workshops for the group and in the best spirit of delegation we agreed and put her in charge of organising the event.

We were lucky to get the services of poet and creative writer tutor, Barbara Smith, who held the first session last evening. The ten members present enjoyed the experience and claimed to have learned a lot from the exercises. We'll be watching and reporting on any improvements noticed!!!

Barbara asked each participant to bring three "precious objects" and there was a fascinating array of things on show - a pair of socks, a radio, photographs, various small figures, books and notebooks etc. These were used in a series of exercises aimed at creating a fictional character in which poets and prose writers were catered for.

Barbara read this poem, Mummy of a Lady Named Jemutesonekh by Thomas James as an example of a combination of research and suggestion to produce an intriguing piece of writing.

Barbara, like myself, is in the final stages of correcting the proofs for her forthcoming poetry collection with Doghouse. The launch of her The Angel's Share is in Dundalk on Wednesday, 23 May.

She also has a guest review of a poetry collection on this blog.

Macdara Woods in Navan Library

Navan Library celebrates Irish poet, Macdara Woods at 70.
Venue: Navan Library, Railway Street, Navan, Co Meath
Thursday: 12 April. Time: 7.30pm
All welcome.

Macdara judged the first poetry competition in which I was longlisted or shortlisted, the Scríobh Poetry Competition in Sligo in 2006. My poem, Consumption, was included in the anthology of shortlisted poems for 2004-2006. Unfortunately that was the last year of that competition.

As part of the prize we had a workshop with Macdara which I found very useful. I won't be able to attend in Navan on Thursday evening, Boyne Writers Group have organised a workshop for the same evening with the talented Barbara Smith, a fellow Doghouse poet.

The Neuroscience of Bob Dylan's Genius

An interesting extract from an article in the Guardian about the composition of Bob Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone. It makes a lot of sense.

"Just look at poets, who often rely on literary forms with strict requirements, such as haikus and sonnets. At first glance, this writing method makes little sense, since the creative act then becomes much more difficult. Instead of composing freely, poets frustrate themselves with structural constraints.

Unless poets are stumped by the form, unless they are forced to look beyond the obvious associations, they'll never invent an original line. They'll be stuck with clichés and conventions, with predictable adjectives and boring verbs.

And this is why poetic forms are so important. When a poet needs to find a rhyming word with exactly three syllables or an adjective that fits the iambic scheme, he ends up uncovering all sorts of unexpected connections; the difficulty of the task accelerates the insight process."

The article on the website and in Saturday's Guardian is an edited extract from Imagine: How Creativity Works, by Jonah Lehrer, published on 19 April by Canongate Books at £18.99.

Happy Easter

The Resurrection of Christ from the west wall, Church of St Mary, Chalgrove, Oxfordshire, England.

This church was on my visiting list last summer when I drove through some of rural England. Alas I never reached it. Maybe this summer.

The Church of St. Mary is famed for its magnificent medieval wall paintings, which date from about 1330. As throughout England, these murals were whitewashed over at the Reformation and lie hidden for centuries. They were rediscovered and restored in 1858 during a period of renovation.

A Resurrection poem: Descending Theology: The Resurrection by Mary Karr.

Happy Easter everyone!!

Good Friday

Castledermot, Co. Kildare, north cross, east face with the crucifixion in the centre and the twelve apostles in four sets of three around it.

A poem for Good Friday: Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward by John Donne

And some music here.

Holy Thursday

The Cross of Muiredach, from Monasterboice, County Louth.
Bottom of the west face shows either the arrest of Christ, the mocking of Christ or the Ecce Homo (Behold the Man) presentation of the scourged Christ to the crowd.

Below, on the base above the two cats is the inscription: OR DO MUIREDACH LASNDERNAD ..... RO, Pray for Muiredach who had the cross erected.

Revival Launched in Limerick

These events are usually friendly occasions. You meet those you haven't met since your last visit, those you know but never met and one of two who are being published for the first time.

Limerick Writers' Centre launched Revival 22 last night in the Riddlers Bar, Sarsfield St. the first time I've been in this venue. Nice cosy upstairs room with plenty of space and a nice stage.

This issue is the first edited by Noel King and contains poems, a memoir (hippies and a stallion) and a review by poet Richard Halpern of Macdara Woods' The Cotard Dimension (Dedalus, 2011).

The poets included include some familiar names and some unfamiliar including translations of poems by seven contemporary Macedonians poets.

After the launch we had a reading, bilingual, by Irish poet Seán O’Coistealbha from his recent collection Stadhán. This was very well received; you didn't need to understand every word to appreciate his wonderful Connamara Irish. It included a very bitter poem on Holy Week as well as a memory of an emigrant uncle who returned for a magical month.

Then we had an open mic which began and ended with songs from a singer-songwriter, and included two tributes to the recently deceased writer John Arden by the director of Limerick Writers Centre and by Fred Johnston of the Western Writers Centre.

A great night, worth driving through the hailstones for!

Launch of Revival 22 in Limerick

The Limerick Writers' Centre presents the April 'On The Nail' Literary Gathering on Tuesday 3 April 2012 @ 8.00pm. Upstairs@Riddler’s Bar (formally Foley's), Sarsfield St, Limerick.

This month event sees the launch of Revival Literary Journal 22. I have a poem included which also appears in my forthcoming poetry collection. Once poems are published in a collection they normally won't be eligible for publication in magazines or for entry in competitions so this is the last outing for an Asking for Directions poem.

One of our LitLab members, Mairéad Donnellan, also has a poem in this issue of Revival.

As well as the launch there is a featured reader, poet Seán O’Coistealbha. Seán is a Conamara based poet who writes in both Irish language and English medium. Stadhan is Seán's second publication.

Also Gabhar Theatre Company in association with the UL Drama Society bring us the second of our Radio Noir series of 10 minute plays, tonight Bloody Mary by Mike Reidy. Cast: Grace Cronin, Shane Vaughan, Paul Them and Hugh O'Brien.

And there is an open-mic after the main event - a full night in store. Admission is free.
Videos of previous reading are available on the On The Nail YouTube Channel.

April Fools' Day

Scanning the news headlines online to spot the obviously false stories for the day that's in it.

Here are a few candidates:

GAA match result: Mayo 0-20 Dublin 0-08
Must be a joke, Mayo can't shoot and Dublin are All Ireland champions

Household charge paid by 50%, 805,569 households, as deadline passes.
No, this can't be true, the Late Late Show told people to refuse to pay!

Burma votes in historic democratic election.
Ah this is it!!

Aer Lingus chief paid €1.2m last year.
Now if it was Ryanair I'd believe it.

Soccer result: Manchester City 3 Sunderland 3
Ha! Ha!

Michael Buble nominated for Sony radio award.
Ha! Ha! Ha!

Adrienne Rich and Boyne Berries Launch

The American poet, Adrienne Rich, died last Tuesday at the age of 82.

Obituaries - Irish Times; New York Times; Guardian; BBC. Her poems at the Poetry Archive; at PennSound.

As a tribute to her and to the gathering of writers and friends that was the Boyne Berries launch on Thursday evening I finished the night by reading this poem of hers. Most appropriate at what was very much a "We/You/Us" event.

In Those Years

In those years, people will say, we lost track
of the meaning of we, of you
we found ourselves
reduced to I
and the whole thing became
silly, ironic, terrible:
we were trying to live a personal life
and, yes, that was the only life
we could bear witness to

But the great dark birds of history screamed and plunged
into our personal weather
They were headed somewhere else but their beaks and pinions drove
along the shore, through rages of fog
where we stood, saying I

Adrienne Rich (1929-2012)

Boyne Berries Launched

It's that 7.45 feeling. Everything ready. Magazine printed, looks good. Contributors invited. Write up in local press. 45 chairs waiting. But will anyone turn up?

No need to worry. By 8.20 we were bringing in extra chairs and in the end we must have had almost sixty in the audience. And what a great audience. I said something about it being a most sympathetic audience because everyone there was either a reader or connected to a reader by blood or love.

Paddy Smith, our chairperson, did his usual great job in welcoming everyone and making them feel at home. Our guest speaker, Michael Slavin, spoke about developments in communications illustrating his chat with personal experiences - being able to use a mobile phone to relay reports to RTE from Ballivor Horse Show rather than having to race down the village to the phone box was a milestone!

Then the readings. We had readers from Dublin, Louth and Cavan. Danielle McLaughlin came all the way from Cork to read her well-crafted story In the Shore Field which the audience loved. We were delighted to see Peter Goulding in the audience as well. He may have some comments on his blog later!

Our own writers did very well. Caroline Carey Finn, just back from a recording session at RTE for Sunday Miscellany, read her B is for Book and Jenny Andersson's Finding Heaven with its clever use of song titles went down very well.

Now I have to do the tidy-up work - post contributors' copies, get some into the shops, pay the hotel, update the website, relax.

You can purchase a copy of Boyne Berries 11 on the website. It's available in the Post Office and in Antonia's Bookshop, Trim. and in Michael Slavin's bookshop, Hill of Tara.

Boyne Berries 11 Launch

Boyne Berries 11 will be launched tomorrow evening, Thursday 29 March, by Michael Slavin. Castle Arch Hotel, Trim 8pm. All welcome, free admission, tea and coffee.

All in readiness more or less. Just have to collect the magazines from the printers, organise a final list of readers, check that the hotel hasn't forgotten us, make sure our chairman has a funny speech ready, find the notices to direct the throngs to the correct function room and . . .

Just the usual. Next time I'm going to be more organised.

Irish Writers Exhibition

Irish Writers Exhibition by Ursula Burke, a multi-media artist based in Belfast, Northern Ireland, specialising in photography and sculpture, runs from 2 to 30 March 2012, in Johnston Central Library, Farnham Centre, Farnham Street, Cavan, curated by Karen Downey.

This project is a series of contemporary photographic portraits of Irish women writers. Writers photographed include Moya Cannon, Marina Carr, Anne Enright, Rita Anne Higgins, Jennifer Johnston, Paula Meehan, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Medbh McGuckian, Sinéad Morrissey and Mary O’Donnell.

The commission aims to highlight and support increased national, and international recognition of women’s writing from Ireland in recent decades, and modestly proposes to render the face of Irish women’s writing more visible. The exhibition consists of twelve portraits. The portraits are also presented in the form of a poster entitled Irish Writers.

The poster (right) is from this webpage.

A recent exercise at our LitLab writers group was based on this poster and involved using it as a springboard for a piece of on-the-spot, unprepared writing. We did well, I think, with all sorts of reactions in prose and poetry. Very good first drafts - it will be interesting to see if anyone does more work and produces a finished piece.

I'm not sure about mine. It was designed as a visceral male reaction to being stared at by twelve insightful, knowing, sort-of-smiling, black-and-white, female writers.

Here's an extract from my unedited draft:

Please!
I have done nothing
I'm innocent as a naked new-born
These thoughts are not mine
I read them in an Ann Enright story
A Paula Meehan poem
A Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill translation.
I try to exorcise them
Every morning, every bed time
In vain.

Seriously!
This is not me
Just a made-up set-up
Jumped-up male stereotype
Wishing he was somewhere else.

I miss my father's overcoat.

Poetry Invades the Art Gallery

Experiments in Mood and Meaning at Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda, March 31, April 14, May 7, May 26, 2012

This spring, Highlanes Gallery continues developing its policy of partnering with, and programming other art forms, within the context of the gallery space and the current Collection and temporary Exhibitions, and announces a series of afternoon poetry events over the next three months titled Experiments in Mood and Meaning.

Designed to explore exciting new trends in poetry and to experiment with different ways of presenting it live, the series of four events will also showcase a number of Drogheda poets and other invited bards.

The series begins with poetry as drama with Adventures in the Word Jungle on Saturday next 31 March at 3.00pm, when Nuala Leonard, Brian Quinn and Anne Tannam will explore the extra impact possible from multi-voice readings (directed by Brian Quinn).

Then poetry as story is the theme on Saturday 14 April at 3.00pm, in Storylands of Hard Life Experience when the dominance of lyric poetry is challenged by the energy and honesty of longer narrative forms, featuring Patrick Dillon, Terry McHugh and Karl Parkinson.

Then, on (Bank Holiday) Monday May 7 at 3.00pm, during the annual Drogheda Arts Festival, it is poetry and music as ambiencellist Claire Fitch improvises to Roger Hudson’s moody life poems to create Interactions in the Sonic Supersphere.

The series rounds off, on Saturday May 26 at 3.00pm, with Lapwing Poets, a tribute to Lapwing Publications, the fiercely independent Belfast publisher which continues to discover poets establishment publishers ignore with poets Marie MacSweeney, Trim's own Tommy Murray and Adam Rudden.

The series is curated by Drogheda-based writer and poet Roger Hudson, who will also take part. Hesees the overall aim “to join and celebrate the current breakaway from traditional poetic forms and subjects that is revolutionising poetry and performance in Dublin and other cities.”

Says Hudson, “I’ve been attending and taking part in some of the exciting new spoken word events in Dublin such as the Glór Sessions and Tongue Box, and feel it is high time Drogheda had a chance to share in the excitement of this new flowering of poetry as a popular art.”

This programme has been funded by Create Louth and Highlanes Gallery. The gallery is grateful for the on-going financial support from Drogheda Borough Council, the Arts Council and Irish Cement Ltd.

Book finished - More or Less

Last visit to the National Library, Dublin on Thursday last for a few final checks on page references etc. Then the last few amendments to the text, chapter headings added, basic acknowledgements and list of abbreviations included and a dedication.

The book is finished!

The lot has been emailed off to the editors. Yipee!! OK there may be some small things to be done - photographs to be finalised, cover decided - but it's over.

I checked my emails and find that I replied to the initial query about doing this book on 15 April 2010, just under two years ago and just after coming back from a holiday at Lake Garda.

This is what I emailed then:

Thank you very much for the invitation which I received yesterday after returning from a holiday in Italy.

I am retired and haven’t done any research or historical writing for some time but I am tempted by your invitation.

Would it be possible to meet either or both of you to discuss it further? I am available most days and can call up to the college when it suits you.

I met the editors very soon afterwards and agreed to undertake the project. It's been an interesting two years.

Top left and right: Images of Dante and Homer from the stained glass windows at the National Library.

Moth Short Story competition

One overall prize of €1,000. The Prize is open to everyone, as long as the work is original and previously unpublished.

Read the RULES before sending your stories (you can enter as many as you like) along with an ENTRY FORM to:
The Moth‒Altun Short Story Prize, The Moth, Cavan, Co. Cavan, Ireland.

You can also ENTER ONLINE. Closing date 30 April 2012.
The entry fee is €8 per story, or €9 if paying by money/postal order.

The prize will be judged by the award-winning novelist and short story writer, Christine Dwyer Hickey. You can read an extract from her new novel, The Cold Eye of Heaven, in the autumn 2011 issue of The Moth.

Dún a Rí Short Story Competition 2012

This competition is a search for a short story inspired by the magic of Dún a Rí Forest Park, Kingscourt, Co. Cavan. It aims to create a lasting legacy for the Forest which also acknowledges the existence of the unique sculptural works that have been commissioned for the Forest.

This short story could be viewed as a modern day legend that informs popular vocabulary associated with the Forest and contemporary Irish identity. The finished work will be published in e-book format and formally launched in August 2012 in conjunction with the sculptural work commissioned for the Forest. The winner will also be awarded €500 and a commemorative scroll.

For further information and competition entry, you must register here.

All entries to be submitted on line by 4pm on Thursday 17 May.
For further queries contact Cavan County Council Arts Office at T: +353 (0)49 4378548

View or download rules and criteria here.

Spring Flowers

Meanwhile the garden is looking very well. The mild dry winter (It was mild and dry wasn't it) here in Ireland allowed plenty of tidying time and the lawn has already been mown. The usual flowers making their appearance. Daffodils at more or less the expected time, the newly planted snowdrops now gone and the tulips ready to bloom.

The nice thing about the informality and lack of planning (more or less) of the garden is the surprise of the unexpected when flowers you planted and forgot about bloom. Or even when the expected flourish as is happening with the primroses - year by year a larger clump. Photo above - a few cowslips as well but they seem not to multiply at the same rate.

And an unexpected hellebore (below). My Christmas rose, helleborus niger, was a disappointment this year but this one makes up for it. Beside it my Bleeding Heart, dicentra spectablis, which is another disappointment. It seems to have bloomed at least a month earlier than last year and with much less blooms and foliage.

W W I Family History Roadshow Dublin

Do you have a box hidden deep in the attic or under the bed that holds your greatgrandfather’s diaries? Maybe a letter from the front line? A photo taken at the time? Is there a special story behind it? If so, the National Library of Ireland wants to see it.

The Library in conjunction with Europeana (Europe’s digital library, museum and archive), Oxford University, and cultural organisations, is helping to build the first ever online European archive of private stories and documents from World War One in time for the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the war in 1914 — and are looking for your help in order to achieve this.

On Wednesday 21 March, we will be holding a World War One Family History Roadshow from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. in Kildare Street, Dublin. On that day, people across Ireland will be invited to bring in photographs, letters, postcards, medals, coins, keepsakes, diaries, sketches, army discharge papers, rosary beads, recordings and other memorabilia belonging to family and friends who took part in World War One, and to have their stories recorded.

The project, which began in Germany in 2011 after an initial pilot in Oxford, is being rolled out in the UK, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Denmark, Belgium and Ireland this year to create a unique pan-European virtual archive of World War One that is available to everyone. Some of the most fascinating items found to date are described and pictured on the website of the project, at http://www.europeana1914-1918.eu/en/explore .

At the 21 March roadshow, we will have historians and experts on hand to talk to visitors about the significance of their objects. The material will be scanned on the spot by our staff and people will then be free to take their precious memorabilia home with them.

Once scanned, the material will be uploaded to the Europeana 1914–1918 website. If you can’t get to the roadshow, you can still add scanned documents and photos on the site, uploading them in much the same way you would on Facebook.

Any questions? Get in contact at europeana1914-1918@nli.ie, or call Katherine McSharry, National Library Head of Services, on 087 9948144.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone!

This is from the Irish Times, 16 March 1912, one hundred years ago. Click on the image to enlarge it.

Some things to note (Pay attention down at the back, there will be a test at the end of the week!):

Our Donegal Guardian, Danny, wanted three glasses of whiskey for gents but only one glass each for the ladies. Gender inbalance.

It had to be "good" whiskey. Did he mean Tyrconnell Whiskey?

St Patrick's Day was a bank holiday then.

The expectation that Home Rule was inevitable and the implication that under Home Rule prosperity would flourish and there would be plenty of whiskey for all.

According to the 1911 Census of Ireland online there were then sixteen Daniel McCarrons in County Donegal.
A check on their addresses would narrow that down and it should be possibly to find our devilment-maker.

There were four Denis Divers in the county, one a nine year old on Tory Island, so our apostle of temperance was one of the other three, presumably the 64-year old living in Inisowen.

Music, Poetry (and a little prose) at Cavan Museum

A very enjoyable evening of music and readings at Cavan County Museum last evening. A great venue with history and music all around. We read in one of the upstairs rooms with a Ceomhaltas display on the walls and a room dedicated to Percy French close by.

And we had Percy's Come Back Paddy Reilly to Ballyjamesduff played by the wonderfully lively musicians, John McBreen and Pete O'Connor, and sung by the enthusiastic audience. Paddy Smith of LitLab was volunteered to be MC for the night and he did a great job setting the tone with just the right mixture of respect and ribaldry.

LitLab was well represented by Pat Devaney, Mairéad Donnellan, Honor Duff, (pictured above) Paddy and myself. Pat led the way with two well-chosen, well crafted poems, one on a cherry tree and one suitably on shamrock. Mairéad read her amusing They're only here for Heaney which went down very well as did her Noah's wife poem. Honor's sharp piece on 1916 and current economic troubles wasn't funny but was well received.

Paddy read his story dealing with an insurance salesman trying to figure out if his potential customer is Protestant or Catholic. I've heard a few versions of this and it just keep getting better - thanks to my suggestions! I read two new poems, the translation of Tadhg Dall O hÚiggin's poem and my St Laurence O'Toole's heart poem. Reading aloud is a good way of testing the poem. Both passed the test though the translation needs a little more work.

Then the special guest, Ailis Ní Ainle, a post-primary teacher, read three of her poems in Irish. I really enjoyed these. Nice bi-lingual introductions but no attempt to provide a full translation which is great. I always think that if the poem is being translated into English what's the point of reading it in Irish at all. I particularly liked her poem on her visit to the Aran Islands and its effect on her with its reference to the well-known Irish language poet Mairtín Ó Direain.

Thanks to the organisers of the evening, Honor Duff of LitLab and and Savina Donohoe of the Museum.

Poetry and Music in Cavan Museum

Our Cavan-Meath LitLab group is participating in a reading for St Patrick's Festival in Cavan County Museum, Ballyjamesduff on this Thursday evening at 8pm.

It should be a good night with music by John McBreen and Pete O'Connor and poetry in Irish from Ailis Ní Ainle. And the LitLab will do their usual mix of prose and poetry.

We are encouraged to include at least a nod towards the festival so I'm going to read my recent English translation of a poem written in Irish in 1581 by Sligo poet Tadhg Dall Ó hÚigínn.

Also I was recently challenged to write a poem on the theft of the relic of St Laurence O'Toole from Dublin so I might include that as well.

Thursday 15th March 2012, 8pm.
Everyone welcome, admission free.

Boyne Berries 11

After the celebration and excitement of Boyne Berries 10, issue 11 is in danger of being overshadowed. We have gone back to our usual black and white, standard size, no images apart from the cover, style. We couldn't afford to keep up the standard of issue 10 though we are very proud of that production.

We are also proud to have managed to keep the magazine going for so long. Sales don't cover costs. More writers send material to the magazine than buy the magazine.

To date we have got small, much appreciated grants from Meath Arts Office for three of the issues. The Boyne Writers Group funds the magazine from the members' meeting contributions.

Issue 11 has been put together, cover image supplied by the ever reliable Greg Hastings, the pdf sent to the printers, the first proof corrected, the launch planned. It will take place in the Castle Arch Hotel, Trim on Thursday 29 March at 8pm. The magazine will be launched by Michael Slavin.

Michael Slavin has been an equestrian correspondent since the 1960s. He also commentated on show jumping events for RTÉ Radio Sport. He is the author of Showjumping Legends Ireland 1868-1998, The Ancient Books of Ireland, The Book of Tara and Ambassadors on Horseback: the Irish Army Equitation School. He now runs an antiquarian book shop at the Hill of Tara.

With the Help of God - Ealú TG4

I'm glad that's over! I was nervous before the TG4 screening of Ealú on Thursday night. (Repeat this Monday 12 March at 00.10 and should be available on TG4 Player after that). I had seen a preview of the programme in Sligo last year but it's different when you know lots of people are watching. I hadn't realised that I appeared so often in it.

Anyway Magamedia and Paddy Hayes did a great job telling the story in an economical fashion. The use of reconstruction was very effective within what presumably is a very limited budget. As was the use of newsreel from the period, none of it from Sligo as far as I am aware.

Having just completed my umpteenth edit of the Sligo 1912-1923 manuscript where every word, every nuance of meaning is important I kept wanting to change parts of the script and shout It wasn't exactly like that actually, that's gives a wrong idea or The facts don't actually bear that out. I did like the fact that at one stage myself and another historian disagreed about the significance of the IRA breaking down Sligo gaol door.

Now to finish the last edit of the history book and the poetry collection and organise the launch of Boyne Berries 11.

Ealú - The Frank Carty Escape 1920

TG4 will broadcast the episode of EALÚ which deals with the rescue of Frank Carty (right) of Sligo IRA from Sligo gaol in 1920 at 10.30 pm tonight, Thursday, with a repeat on Monday at 00.10. It should be available on the TG4 Player after transmission.

I was interviewed as a local history "expert" for the programme and some parts of the interview will be included. I speak in Irish but subtitles will be used for those who can't understand Irish or can't understand my Irish.

The series is made by Magamedia from Galway. I've already seen the programme at a preview in the grounds of Sligo gaol last year. It's very well made with clever economical effective use of reconstructions. I did think the scene where the IRA leader, Billy Pilkington, who became a Catholic priest afterwards, stole a Bible from Carty's cell a bit too clever! Ah well, that's TV for you.

Nature Poetry Competition

This sounds like an interesting competition. The challenge might be to find a poem which fits the category but is not an obviously stereotypical 'nature poem' - I wandered lonely as a cloud . . . It would be a pity though if the judges took the view that everything is nature so anything goes.

As well as offering poets the chance to win considerable cash prizes and publication of their poems, the competition will raise money for conservation and poetry. We are working in partnership with leading independent UK poetry magazine, The Rialto, as we feel the magazine will be the perfect place to showcase the winning entries.

1st prize is £1000; 2nd Prize is £400; 3rd Prize is £300. Additional Prize is a personal tour with Mark Cocker of his most cherished wildlife places in East Anglia.

The two judges are former Poet Laureate, Sir Andrew Motion and the leading Nature Writer, Mark Cocker.

The entry fee is £6 for the first poem and £3 for each subsequent entry. Full details and the facility to enter online can be found on The Rialto website.

If you would prefer to enter by post, you can download an entry form from the website.

Please do note the term ‘Nature Poetry’ will be given a wide interpretation by the judges. To help expand on this, I thought it would be useful to copy in Michael Mackmin’s mention of the competition is his most recent editorial for The Rialto:

So what is Nature Poetry? As the flier says, the judges will give this a wide interpretation. That’s up to them, but I’d imagine it won’t have to be just poems about creatures and beings that share the planet, or about ‘environmental concerns’. We are all air and water, everything we eat comes from the earth or the sea, most people know the roughness of a leaf or the heft of a stone can change a mood or express a feeling. I asked a 16 year old, What is nature? and she said, insects and grass: I asked a 32 year old the same question and she said, the sun and the moon and the stars and flowers and fruit and babies. You might just have to write your poems and take a risk.

Final Edit - Sligo 1912-1923

This may be the final edit of the history book. Making sure every comma is in the correct place, making final decisions on capitalisation - is it Civil War or civil war, war of independence or War of Independence? The importance is in the consistency.

And a sentence to rephrase here and there where I have reused the same word too often, too close together. And some sentences to be rewritten where I need to make the reader more aware of the significance of what has happened and prepare the reader for what is about to happen.

And the footnotes, italics, capitals, lower case, colons, semi-colons, abbreviations, commas each in its proper place.

Anyway it's great to be finally at this stage. There were times I didn't think I could do it!

The book is in the 2012 Four Courts Press Catalogue though (I'm inclined to overuse that word) the cover hasn't yet been finalised.

The image to be used on the cover is chosen and is included. It's a great photo of pro-Treaty troops in Old Market St., Sligo on Easter Sunday 1922.

Life is bearable at times, a tribute to Wisława Szymborska

This event, both evenings, is sold out. They are investigating the possibility of using a larger venue. You can put your name on a waiting list on the website.

ArtPolonia, Lab for Intercultural Exchange & Cooperation present Life is bearable at times, a tribute to Wislawa Szymborska, an evening to commemorate the recently-deceased Polish poet and Nobel Prize Laureate on 8 & 9 March 2012 at 7pm at the Centre for Creative Practices, 15 Pembroke Street Lower, Dublin 2

Admission free. More details at www.cfcp.ie/szymborska

The evening will start with a screening of Life Is Bearable at Times. This rare and full of humour documentary presents Wislawa Szymborska at her usual trips, with her friends and admirers like Umberto Eco, Woody Allen, Vaclav Havel, Jane Goodall, in her normal life and at some official events which she simply hated.

In the second part of the evening the prominent Irish female poets and writers will read Szymboska’s poems in the English translation. Polish version of the poems will be also presented. Where available we will use the recordings of Szymborska reading her own works.

Readings by Mia Gallagher, Catherine Phil MacCarthy, Jean O'Brien; Mary O'Donnell

Boyne Writers Group

Our meeting on Thursday evening was unusually well-attended with fourteen members present. We had great readings and criticism - poetry including haiku, drama, story and novel extracts, opinion pieces and memoir - and got through the lot in good time thanks to our efficient chairperson, Paddy Smith.

Some good news about members' successes as well. Orla Fay is tops as far as publication credits go, having had poems published in Crannog, Census 3 and on-line at Silver Blade magazine. And it's only March!

Caroline Carey Finn also told us that she has another piece accepted for Sunday Miscellany. Here's the secret. She took a piece she had previously submitted to the programme, retitled it, included a note pointing out how topical it was and they got back to her straight away. The piece is about mock exams in secondary schools.

We also are organising a series of workshops for the group, our Boyne Readings and Open Mic are due to recommence in April and Boyne Berries 11 will be launched at the end of this month. A busy group!!

Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts in Dublin

On 5 March 2007 a bomb was exploded on Baghdad's Al-Mutanabbi Street, located in a mixed Shia-Sunni area. More than 30 people were killed and 100 wounded. Al-Mutanabbi Street, the historic centre of bookselling in Baghdad, holds bookstores and outdoor bookstalls, cafes, stationery shops, tea & tobacco stores.

The Al-Mutanabbi Street coalition was formed in response to the bombing by poet and bookseller Beau Beausoleil in San Francisco. It initiated and completed a broadside project with contributions of 130 broadsides from 130 letterpress printers, some of which were exhibited at the Market House in Monaghan and the Central Library in Dublin last March.

Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts in Dublin is the Dublin edition of a series of events taking place around the globe on 5 March 2012 to mark the 5th anniversary of the bombing, and will feature readings, performances and exhibitions by the Ireland-based participants in 'An Inventory of Al-Mutanabbi Street' and other friends of these projects.

The writers, performers and artists contributing to the evening are Alansary, Cah-44, Evelyn Conlon, Sue Cosgrave, Djeribi, Kit Fryatt, Judy Kravis and Sarah Lewtas. The event is co-ordinated and will be introduced by Christodoulos Makris.

The venue is The Winding Stair Bookshop, 40 Lower Ormond Quay, Dublin 1, and start time is 7pm. Admission is free.