Trim Swift Festival - Academic Programme

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Swift Battle is almost upon us!

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

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

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

Market St., Trim: Old and New

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

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

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

Swift Satire Competition - Results

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SHORTLIST

The follow were shortlisted for the competition:

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

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

Poetry Readings National Gallery :

Poetry Ireland in association with the National Gallery of Ireland presents a reading by Rita Ann Higgins in the National Gallery of Ireland, Merrion Square West, Dublin 2 at 1.00pm on this Wednesday 1 July.

Rita Ann Higgins is from Galway. She has published five collections with Salmon Poetry, including the most recent, Throw in the Vowels. Her plays, Face Licker Come Home, and God-of-the-Hatch-Man, were produced by Punchbag Theatre Company. She has won several awards and her work has been selected for Yale University's Literature Curriculum. She is a member of Aosdána, and lives in Galway.

This is the first in a series of lunchtime Wednesday poetry readings in the Gallery during July.

The others are:
8 July: Philip McDonagh
15 July: Paul Durcan
22 July: Ulick O'Connor
29 July: Enda Wyley

Playwriting Workshop Weekend

Playwriting Workshop Weekend with Acclaimed Writer Mark O’Halloran (right).

Acclaimed writer Mark O’Halloran will facilitate an intensive playwriting weekend course at Solstice Arts Centre, Navan, Co Meath on July 18th and 19th. This course will run from 10am – 5pm on the Saturday and 10am – 2pm on the Sunday. Course fee: €50.00

Mark is a writer/actor from Ennis. As an actor he has worked with all the major companies, most recently as Lord Goring in The Abbey Theatre’s hugely successful production of An Ideal Husband. On screen he has appeared in numerous films, most notably as one of the eponymous heroes in Adam and Paul for with he wrote the screenplay. Mark’s other writing credits include the multi-award winning film Garage and the television series Prosperity.

This professional development initiative is a Meath County Council Arts Office, Tall Tales Theatre Company and Solstice Arts Centre project.

To register please contact Meath County Council Arts Office on 01-8358014 or artsoffice@meathcoco.ie

Flypaper

At the still centre of the cardinal points
The flypaper hung from our kitchen ceiling,
Honey-strip and death-trap, a barley-sugar twist
Of glut and loathing . . .

Seamus Heaney - Known World from Electric Light.

I read this two days ago to the buzz of flies. Warm sunny weather means open windows - enter flies, not many but each has that drone, buzz that I hate so much. If I was left to myself I'd keep all windows closed. As it is I use flyspray much to the disapproval of other inhabitants. Quoting "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" is useless. The flyspray is hidden away.

We used flypaper when I was young, don't see it in shops these days - world going to the dogs. You could make your own - instructions here. I might try it one of these days. Probably not worth it though, fine spell won't last, another wet summer I reckon.

Drogheda Open Mic

Very successful Open Mic session in Drogheda last night. Four of us Boyne Writers attended - picture above. Over forty people were there at least half of whom read. These included published authors and first time readers, with a wide span of ages.

A great selection of material, first chapters of novels, published poems and some work nervously being aired for the first time. We heard a piece to be read on Lyric FM's Quiet Quarter later this year. Especially good was the number of funny pieces - lots of humour, quite an amount of it delivered with exaggerated Drogheda accents. We had a very well delivered and received rap which livened things up no end. Music was also included and there was wine and nibbles.

Quite a number of the readers are included in the recently published Drogheda Writes 2 which was edited by Barbara Smith and Roger Hudson. Roger was there as were Marie McSweeney and Honor Duff, winner of the Cavan Caomhnu poetry competition earlier this year.

The venue itself was excellent. The reading took place in the spacious Callan Art Gallery which is attached to Boyne Books, the new and secondhand bookshop recently opened in West Street. The featured artist this month at the gallery is John Philip Murray and his paintings provided a interesting backdrop for the evening.

One or two readers did read a little longer than they should. For an open mic like this where there are plenty of readers two or three short poems or the prose equivalent is enough. Leaving the audience wanting more rather than wondering how many more is he going to read seems the best plan. Apart from that, a most enjoyable night. Congrats to the organisers and readers!

Heaney Says Vote Yes

Poet Seamus Heaney has lent his voice to the Vote Yes to Lisbon campaign. At the weekend launch of a newly formed group Ireland for Europe, the organisers showed a film of him reciting his poem Beacons at Bealtaine, along with a declaration that “there are many reasons for ratifying the Lisbon Treaty, reasons to do with our political and economic wellbeing”.

Irish Times report here, Irish Independent here.

New Open Mic Session - Drogheda

New open mic session at Boyne Books, Narrow West Street, Drogheda on Thursday 25 June at 8pm. There is a €3 cover charge to cover refreshments. The organisers hope this will be the first of many open mic sessions in this recently opened bookshop on West Street.

Guests at this event will also be able to enjoy the first public fine-art exhibition at Boyne Books with large photographic prints by Slane-based photographers Catherine and Robert Ardill based on the theme of 'Boyne Valley beautiful' which runs June 25th-July 12th inclusive.

More details can be obtained from Boyne Books, 56-57 West Street or by phoning 0419873835.

The Battle of the Books

One of the innovative ideas which the Trim Swift Festival came up with this year was a live spoken satire contest which they have entitled The Battle of the Books. This is in addition to the written satire competition the short list for which was announced last week. Two teams representing the Boyne Writers Group and Meath Writers Circle will deliver their satirical pieces as part of a Swift Literary Cabaret on the Sunday night of the festival.

The rules are simple, four per team, two poems, two prose pieces, satire on any topic, must be written by the person who delivers it, time limits - 3 minutes poem, 5 minutes prose. A panel of three judges will deliver their verdicts round by round in an X Factor style.

Tommy Murray is the captain of the Meath Writers Circle and I am the captain of the Boyne Writers. Our group is holding rehearsals at a secret location this week to hone our delivery and no doubt the opposition is doing likewise. Any reports or secret information welcomed.

Full details of the Festival on their website including booking details should you wish to attend the contest. Other items on the programme are the reading of the winning entry in the written satire conpetition and a rehearsed reading from Gulliver's Travels by Trim Drama Group.

Poems for Fathers' Day

It's Fathers' Day today - not as big a commercial event as Mothers' Day but a valiant effort being made by commercial interests to develop it.

Many father and daddy poems have been written, most with some kind of edge to them reflecting the position, status and function demanded by society of fathers certainly in the past. It may be that being cast as the provider, the chastiser, the one who went out to work did not often lend itself to tender memories.

I think of Heaney's surprise in Mid-Term Break at seeing his father crying.
Heaney's father, Patrick, died in 1986 and the collection, Seeing Things, published in 1991, contains many poems for his father including this three line poem entitled 1.1.87

Dangerous pavements.
But I face the ice this year
With my father's stick.

And in his A Call from The Spirit Level where he telephones home and while his mother goes to call in his father the poet imagines what the father has being doing and listens to the hall clocks. The last line sums up so much about father - son relationships:

Next thing he spoke and I nearly said I loved him.

Sylvia Plath's Daddy is a particularly chilling poem especially when you hear her reading it. You can hear it here on YouTube and read it here. Lots of discussion on the poem on the Sylvia Plath forum here.

Poets.org has a selection of poems about fathers for Fathers Day here.
Irish Times Friday article on Father's Day here.

Traditional Haymaking Festival

Tomorrow Sunday 21st June sees the annual Scurlogstown Olympiad’s Traditional Haymaking Festival taking place in Trim’s Porchfields in a most picturesque setting along the banks of the Boyne with a great view across the river to Trim Castle. The event features as usual a packed programme which includes the National Scythe-Cutting competition.

There are also some dramatic events - Trim Drama Group will perform a scene from the 'The Plough And The Stars' by Sean O’Casey following their successful runs in Trim and Navan and Boyne Writers Group member Paddy Smith has scripted and directed a re-enactment/ drama/ pageant about farmer Dan O’Hara and a group of travellers. I don't wish to give away the plot but it appears that Dan's daughter, Nancy, may take a fancy to one of the travellers.

There will also be a poetry house at the festival under the stewardship of Meath Writers' Circle leader, Trim poet Tommy Murray. Poets and those interested in poetry are invited to drop in and read their work or just listen.

More details of the packed programme here on the website and here in the Meath Chronicle.

There has been some comment about the poster above especially about the hayfork. It has four prongs and my memory is that a hayfork or pitchfork should have only two. However you have to be careful, the exact make up of farm implements in the past could be very localised with different style used in different regions.

The fork in the poster I would call a graipe and we would have used it for cleaning out manure but not for hay. Our pitchforks had two prongs and had to be light and easily handled. Notice that the "pitchfork" in the illustration here has five prongs.

Heaney captures it well when he writes in The Pitchfork:

Of all implements, the pitchfork was the one
That came near to an imagined perfection . . .
It felt like a javelin, accurate and light.
(Seeing Things)

By the way how many prongs in the pitchfork in Grant Wood's 1930 painting American Gothic? Answer here.

Boyne Reading and Open Mic

We held the third of our Readings and Open Mic last night. Well attended. Our featured readers were Trim poet Tommy Murray and self styled "gentleman farmer" George Briscoe. George read from his two books of memoirs and entertained the audience with memories of hunting days, the setting up of what was to become Royal Tara Golf Club, training with the Local Defence Force (the Dad's Army of the day, he described it) during the forties and much more.

Tommy Murray is a well-known poet in Trim, Meath and beyond. Work of his is included current issue of the NUI Galway Anthology ‘Ropes Unravelled’. He is the founder of the Meath Writers' Circle and is a creative writing tutor. He has published a number of anthologies of children's work. A collection of his, Counting Stained Glass Windows, is due out from Lapwing Publishers during the summer. He read a selection of his poems, old and new, with his usual good humour.

The open mic was enjoyable with a nice balance of prose and poetry. Among the readers was Meath Writers' Circle member William Hodgins who read from his first book of poems "Sunflower" which he recently published.

We are taking a break from the readings for the summer but will probably be back in September.

In the Footsteps of Ledwidge Walk

The annual In the Footsteps of Ledwidge sponsored walk will be held on Sunday 28 June. This year’s walk will involve a guided tour of the Hill of Tara. Ms. Helen Tully, tour guide at Brú na Bóinne and a valued member of the Ledwidge Museum Committee will be the guide on the day. Helen will explain the archaeological wonders of Tara where it has been established that human activity goes back to the Neolithic period. She will also link Francis Ledwidge’s association with Tara and nearby Dunsany Castle.

Francis Ledwidge had a special love for Tara and shortly before his death, he wrote in a letter to Ms. Katherine Tynan “If you go to Tara, go to Rath-na Rí and look all round you from the hills of Drumcondrath in the north to the plains of Enfield in the south, where Allen Bog begins, and remember me to every hill and wood and ruin, for my heart is there. If it is a clear day you will see Slane Hill blue and distant…”

The walk will commence at 3pm at the entrance to Tara. If you wish to join the walk please contact the Ledwidge Cottage Museum (Phone: 041-9824544 or email info@francisledwidge.com) for a sponsorship card, or come along on the day and make a donation. Lifts from Slane can also be arranged, again please contact the museum for details of same.

June Boyne Readings and Open Mic

Two prominent and colourful local writers are the featured guests for the June session of Boyne Readings and Open Mic on Thursday (June 18) in Trim.

Tommy Murray, Summerhill Road, Trim (above) and George Briscoe, Craystown House, Bective, have the top billings for the session, which takes place in The Village Hall of the Knightsbridge Retirement Village on the Longwood Road, starting at 8pm.

The two featured readers are well-established writers.

Tommy Murray, a leading poet who has won awards in competitions throughout Ireland, is the founder and driving force behind the Meath Writers Circle, based in Trim. He has had many books of poetry and prose published, and also has a reputation as a facilitator and teacher of poetry-writing among schoolchildren.

George Briscoe was Master of the Tara Harriers for over 65 seasons. He is the former owner of Bellinter House, which he sold in 1954 for £36,000, and he describes himself as “a country gentleman”. He has published extensively about his life and times, most notably in one of his books, The Best Of Times.

Admission to the Boyne Readings and Open Mic is €5, which includes tea/coffee and biscuits.

The Trim Town Election Catastrophe

Have a laugh with this film posted on YouTube, even if you are a Fianna Fail supporter.



The result of the election for Trim Town Council may not be world news but the subtitling in the film is just brilliant - Adolf Hitler playing Anthony Hopkins playing Minister Noel Dempsey! I could start explaining the references but there's really no need. If you really want to know some background read the Meath Chronicle article on the Trim election. Enjoy.

There's also some actual film of the Trim Council count on YouTube - just seach for Trim Council Election.

Trim Swift Satire Competition Shortlist

The follow have been shortlisted for the Trim Swift Festival Satire competition:

Joe Barry, Kilcock, Co Kildare
Stephen Brady, Ashford, Co Wicklow;
Miles Cain, York, UK;
John Clarke, Middlesex, UK;
Maureen Gallagher, Rahoon, Galway
Peter Goulding, Castaheany, Dublin;
Iggy McGovern, Clonskeagh, Dublin;
David Rowell, Churchtown, Dublin;
Kate Smith, St Neots, Cambridgeshire, UK;
Jamie Ward, Ballybay, Co Monaghan

The judge for the competition is Ivan Yates chairman and managing director of Celtic Bookmakers and a former Fine Gael politician and government minister. He has also been presenting an early morning radio show.

The winner and runners up will be announced by the end of June. The winner will be invited to read his/her winning entry at the Swift Summer Night in the Knightsbrook Hotel, Trim on 5th July.

More Seamus Heaney

Today's Guardian has a review by Peter McDonald of Heaney's translation of The Testament of Cresseid & Seven Fables by Robert Henryson which I blogged about a week or two ago. "The poem is a masterpiece; and Heaney's version shows an unobtrusive, but real, mastery of its own".

The same newspaper has a review by Sue Arnold of Heaney's reading of his Collected Poems - "For me he is the most thoughtful, the wisest and yet most accessible of all modern poets. His talent - one of them - is his ability to reconfigure the familiar."

I'm more than half way through the collection, determined to get to the end, reading and listening at the same time. I'm also dipping into a few books of criticism - Seamus Heaney The Making of the Poet by Michael Parker, The Poetry of Seamus Heaney - A Critical Study by Neil Corcoran and The Poetry of Seamus Heaney - A Reader's Guide to Essential Criticism edited by Elmer Kennedy-Andrews.

From the last book comes this wonderful remark on Heaney's popularity - The rise in Heaney's reputation and the boom in health foods are sociologically connected - making the point that the poet's early country poems seem to mirror modern fashionable anxieties about urbanisation and technology.

I'm just starting Seeing Things now. Three volumes (or is it four?) to go.

Swift Satire Competition

The satire competition organised by the Boyne Writers Group in connection with the Trim Swift Festival has closed. The entry this year is in the region of thirty five which is an increase on last year's entry. The organisers are pleased with this considering that satire is quite specialised and that topics are given so that writers have to come up with a new piece of writing.

Most of the entries are from Ireland but there are a number from the UK and from Canada and the USA. The poetry/prose split is about half and half.

The standard seems high with many writers enjoying the opportunity to castigate banks and bankers. There is the problem that the present economic crisis has resulted in so many events which would have previously been unthinkable that some of the satiric suggestions seem almost believable. Some poets delighted in finding as many rhymes as possible for "bankers".

The short list should be announced early next week and the winner and runners up announced before the festival takes place. The winning entry will be read at the final event of the Festival, the literary night on Sunday 5th July. Last year's winning entry can be read here.

The full programme for the Trim Swift Festival is here.

20,000 Images of Ireland Available Online

The National Library of Ireland has just introduced an online service whereby 20,000 photographs from the Lawrence, Poole and Independent Newspapers collections (1870-1954) in their National Photographic Archive can now be viewed on the Library’s website here.

The initiative is part of an ongoing digitisation project designed to increase online access to the National Photographic Archive’s extensive collection of glass plate negatives. These are part of the National Library’s photographic collection, the largest collection in the world of photographs relating to Ireland.

The database provides an easy means of searching the information about all 20,000 digitised photographs, including the option to search by keywords such as “eviction”, “election”, “women”, or “market”. I searched for "poet" and "poetry" but got no results.

The picture at the top, from the archive, from Independent Newspapers, is captioned Member of the Free State Army guarding Sligo Town Hall and dated 16 August 1922.

This is a very interesting picture. I included a very similar one with most of the same people in it in my The Aftermath of Revolution book as a photo of anti-Treaty soldiers in Sligo in April 1922 on the occasion of Arthur Griffith's pro-Treaty meeting there. (New York Times report here) I got the picture from George Morrison. In fact both my picture and the picture above are from a Pathe Newsreel of the April sligo event. You can actually see the newsreel on the wonderful Pathe Archive here.

So are they pro- or anti-Treaty? It matters little now but it's definitely April 1922. Someone did tell me that the officer with the revolver may be Harry Brehony who was shot dead in Coolaney, Co Sligo during the Civil War. If that's true then they are definitely anti-Treaty. They lost that war of course.

W B Yeats Celebration

This month the National Library, Dublin, hosts its third annual celebration of the poetry of William Butler Yeats through a series of poetry readings, interviews and other events in Summer’s Wreath 2009. Details and a full schedule can be found on the National Library’s website on their website here. Thise includes talks on the poet and readings from his work by the likes of Bob Geldof, Marina Carr and Jennifer Johnston.

One of the most interesting appears to be that of Wednesday 17 June at 7.30pm when Yeats’ biographer, Prof. Roy Foster and actress Fiona Shaw reflect on the themes of Yeats’ poetry in his final years. Fiona Shaw was featured in one of the Poetry Season programmes on BBC, reading and commenting on some of John Donne's poetry.

Booking is essential for the National Library event, more details here.

Ireland Win Cricket Match

Ireland beat Bangladesh in the World Twenty 20 cricket tournament yesterday. An excellent bowling performance saw Bangladesh scoring only 137 in their 20 overs. Wicket keeper Niall O'Brien was man of the match with a great stumping and a strong performance with the bat in spite of an ankle injury. He and his brother Kevin scored 79 between them to win with 10 balls and six wickets to spare. Ireland was on paper the weakest team in the group. Ireland play India on Wednesday 10 June at 5.30pm but are guaranteed to progress to the Super Eights part of the tournament because Bangladesh have already lost to India.
Report here.

Another big surprise is that one of the favourites, Australia, lost their two group matches and are out of the tournament.

That's Not Cricket!

The Cricket World Twenty 20 tournament opened in England on Friday night. Actually the opening ceremony had to be abandoned because of the rain and the opening match between hosts England and minnows Netherlands (Yes Netherlands has a cricket XI) provided a shock, Netherlands winning. They needed to score two from the last ball and did so thanks to an overthrow by Stuart Broad (An overthrow is when an attempt to knock the wicket misses and goes so far that another run can be scored). See picture right - that's Broad on the ground! A lot of adverse comment in the English media.

Of course the whole concept of Twenty 20 cricket is sneered at by many who regard it as pandering to the short attention span of the modern fan. Twenty 20 means each side bowls 20 overs so the game is completed in an afternoon. To many the only real cricket match is the five day test match.

To be fair to cricket, a game many would regard as a relic of ancient manners and customs, the controlling bodies seem very willing to make changes in format and rules to make the game and its various versions more enjoyable.

The Irish cricket team is taking part in this tournament in a group with India, one of the favourites, and Bangla Desh. Their first match, against Bangla Desh, is on this afternoon at 12.30pm and the other match against India is on Wednesday at 4.30pm. It would be a major suprise were Ireland to win any of these matches.

Cricket in Ireland has a long history. More here.

It's Raining Again

The short heatwave is over and everyone feels normal again. The sun hats have been put away with the sunscreen, sunglasses and the shorts. All that expensive garden furniture and BBQ sets that were bought all over the country last week are soaking in the wet, looking very forlorn on the drenched patio. Those plans for the garden have been shelved and the washing which was hung out is now wetter than it was three days ago.

We don't really like hot weather here I believe. When a sunny spell arrives most people don't trust it first and it takes two or three days before they change into suitable clothes. Research in the papers last week questioned the widely held assumption that fine weather makes people happier. Irish Times article here.

Lots of rain poetry and most of it has some metaphoric significance as in Raining in My Heart the B side of Buddy Holly's last release. I remember learning this simple poem by Irene Thompson in primary school long ago. I always liked it and can still say it by heart.

Rainy Nights

I like the town on rainy nights
When everything is wet
When all the town has magic lights
And streets of shining jet;

When all the rain about the town
Is like a looking glass
And all the lights are upside down
Below me as I pass.

In all the pools are velvet skies
And down the dazzling street
A fairy city gleams and lies
In beauty at my feet.

It is used in a 2008 exam question from Malta here. The students are told that looking glass = mirror and that jet = black.

And the weather forecast? Check it here.

The International Slavery Museum, Liverpool

The most unsettling museum I have ever visited has to be the International Slavery Museum at Albert Dock, Liverpool. (Auschwitz can't be regarded as a museum) The relatively small space is filled with exhibits, visual, aural and video and there is a constant barrage of information in the dimly lit area - one horror after another.

The display galleries concentrate on the history of transatlantic slavery, its many legacies, and the wider issue of freedom. They explore the story of transatlantic slavery from the complex and vital cultures of West Africa before the coming of the Europeans, through the horrific middle passage on board ship, to life in the Americas.

The question which arises is the same question when you consider any of the great injustices of the past, Irish or international - How was it allowed to happen? It also raises the question of the guilt of the first world in the present condition of so many of the countries from which slaves originated.

The museum does outline the long history of determined and relentless resistance to enslavement, and how enslaved people themselves contributed to gaining their eventual freedom. It also celebrates the cultural contribution made by people of slave origin.

The museum, opened on 23 August 2007, explores the important role that Liverpool played in the trade. The location is only yards away from the dry docks where 18th century slave trading ships were repaired and fitted out.

"Make no mistake, this is a museum with a mission. We wish to help counter the disease of racism, and at the heart of the museum is a rage which will not be quieted while racists walk the streets of our cities, and while many people in Africa, the Caribbean, and elsewhere, continue to subsist in a state of chronic poverty. This is not a museum that could be described as a 'neutral space' - it is a place of commitment, controversy, honesty, and campaigning" - transcript of the speech given by David Fleming, director of National Museums Liverpool, at the gala dinner to celebrate the opening of the International Slavery Museum on 22 August 2007.

This New York Times report on the museum is a good summary and gives the feeling well. BBC news report on the museum containing a video tour here. Penny Lane, the street made famous in song by The Beatles is named after a Liverpool slave ship owner and anti-abolitionist. Poem Middle Passage by American poet Robert Hayden.

Poetry isn't Drama

Thanks to Honor Duff alerting me to this TV review column in the Sunday Times where the columnist A A Gill has a go at the plethora of poets and poetry related programmes on the box recently. I gave up reading this kind of thing when TV and Radio review newspaper columns became entertainments (about the time of the Black Death - I hear Paddy say). Anyway you can almost hear A A loading in as many old and new cliches about poets and poetry as he can for a laugh. Read it all if you must.

He does make an interesting point here and there. Especially worthy of consideration is this paragraph on reading poetry aloud:

poetry isn’t drama: the imposition of a character, the inflection of emotion and opinion, diminishes it. Despite its origins, the whole business of out-loud poetry is problematic. Nobody will ever read you Donne or Shakespeare’s sonnets or Eliot with more poignancy and meaning, more beautifully, than the voice in your head.

This is interesting and I'm not sure that it's so easy to be dogmatically on one side or the other in this argument. I'm listening to Heaney's reading of his work at the moment and reading it on the page at the same time. His readings add a lot of meaning to the work.

I'm also involved in the Boyne Readings and open mic series and have read at the White House and in Trim. I do see reading a poem to an audience as a performance and I take care with stress, pauses, emphases trying my best to get the nuances across. I don't see it as acting though.

Does we have to have this argument? I don't think so. If we accept that there are many ways of learning then surely some people will gain more by hearing a poem rather than listening to it. There is the hope that listening to poetry may encourage people to buy and read more poetry. That can only be good can't it?

Portrait of John Donne in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Papaver Orientale

I always think of the Oriental Poppy as the aunts you were fascinated by but slightly ashamed of in your youth, extroverts, daringly dressed, wearing bright red lipstick. These have flourished and multiplied in the garden and make a great show at this time of year, their strident colour a great contrast with the more restrained tones around them. "It's summer" they seem to say "What the hell!" Each bloom lasts a very short time but there are many more to replace them. A real star of the summer garden.

A poem The Poppy here by Francis Thompson of The Hound of Heaven fame.

Summer set lip to earth's bosom bare,
And left the flushed print in a poppy there:
Like a yawn of fire from the grass it came,
And the fanning wind puffed it to flapping flame.

The Red Poppy here by American poet Louise Gluck.

The great thing
is not having
a mind.

Poetry Competitions Closing Soon

Three poetry competitions closing very soon, all from the west of Ireland. In her post here Emerging Writer talks about the ROI of competitions - return for investment, entry fee versus prizes. Judge yourself from the details below.

iYeats Poetry Competition

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Yeats summer school and the 70th anniversary of the death of WB Yeats, the Hawk's Well Theatre Sligo announces the inaugural iYeats Poetry Competition 2009 - an online national and international competition open to all and with a special award for poetry from poets under 25. Prize giving and a Public reading of the shortlisted poets will take place during the annual Yeats Summer School 2009.

The twin themes of the iYeats Poetry Competition 2009 will be POLITICS and LOVE. Poems will be accepted on these subjects with closing date of June 12th 2009. Entry fee is 5 euro anf first prize is 300 euro. Maximum length 40 lines. Full details here.

I don't have many poems on either politics or love but using a very broad definition of love I might enter one or two.

Boyle Arts Festival Poetry Competition 2009

Closing date for entries, 15th June 2009. €5 per poem. Prizes are €300 for the winning poem and €50 for the four runners up. Prizes will be awarded on Sunday 26th July at a ceremony during the Boyle Arts Festival. Maximum length 40 lines. Details here.

One of our writing group, Brendan Carey Kinane, won this competition two years ago and I had a poem highly commended so I'll certainly enter this again. Different judge this time of course.

Leyney Writers Tubbercurry Festival

Leyney Writers in Tubbercurry, Co Sligo are accepting entries to their fourth annual writing competition. There are three categories: short story, free verse or rhyming verse. Prizes are: €100 or €50 in each category. The entry fee is €10 per entry. The story word limit is 1,500 words; poetry limit is 200 lines. Post to Tubbercurry Literary Festival, Short Story Competition, Leyney Writers, 25 Ballina Road, Tubbercurry, Co. Sligo. Closing date for entries is June 13, 2009. More details here. That poetry line limit is very unusual and I think I'll send them a 110 line sequence I completed recently based on the Leixlip Bridge Eucharistic congress road accident I blogged about some time ago here.

My main cribs with competitions are the inability to enter online especially for competitions abroad where sending the fee is then a problem and the fact that many competition websites never announce the results of the competition. Only the iYeats competition above has online entering. Some competitions insist on only accepting entries by hard copy but allow online payment by PayPal or similar. Use the possibilities of the internet!

Poetry's Image Problem

Newsnight Review special on poetry last Friday included a discussion on poetry during which the question was asked "Does poetry have an image problem? The best contribution was by poet Simon Armitage (right): "The answer to the question is of course, that's what it's there for - to have an image problem. Poetry is obstinately not trying to appeal to everybody, it's disobedient, it's contrary. It doesn't reach the right hand margin most of the time, it doesn't even reach the bottom of the page a lot of the time, it simply isn't there to please everybody. . . . Poetry has always existed between two kinds of death, a death where it's so obscure that no-one wants to read it and a death where it's so facile that it can't simply be doing its job and between these perameters it's always going up and down."

A nice answer to those who think that poetry must be made "easier to understand" for the "ordinary man in the street". We must credit the poetry reader with some intelligence.

This discussion is part of the poetry season which the BBC is running at the moment. I saw some of the programmes and recorded more for future viewing - when the rain returns! The programme by Armando Iannucci on Milton's Paradise Lost was very good and that poem is next on my reading list. Next highlight is possibly the Arena profile of T S Eliot on Saturday 6 June at 21:45 on BBC Two.

Brooklyn - Colm Tóibín

Tomorrow Tuesday 2 June the Triskel Arts Centre, Tobin St, Cork presents an evening with Colm Tóibín. He will read from his new novel, Brooklyn. Time: 8.00pm Admission: €8/€6 T: 021 427 2022 E: info@triskelartscentre.ie triskelartscentre.ie

I have just finished Brooklyn and have to register my disappointment. I found it lifeless and ponderous and at no stage was I moved to any great interest or sympathy for the characters. It did improve in the second half with the telephone conversation between the main character, Eilis, and her mother a high point. I feel that if you are going to write about the fifties in Ireland than you had better do it in a way that makes your novel stand out from the thousands of similar stories with the same general theme and plot.

The beginning, middle and end of this story are where you would expect them and there is no relief from the one-thing-after-another storytelling style. At no stage did I feel that I was close to the main character as you might be in a John Banville novel. The style, which includes long involved sentences, keeps the reader at a distance from the characters. Some of the plot devices seem contrived especially the ending where Miss Kelly is used to spur Eilis to her final decision, a decision which up to then seemed highly unlikely.

There are nice things in the book. There is the unsettling feeling that everyone knows more than they let on to Eilis. There are also interesting comparisons between Enniscorthy and Brooklyn as regards class and status.

It strikes me that if Eilis' mother lived another decade or two she would have had a great time being flown over to Brooklyn for her grandchildren's baptisms, confirmations and weddings. Eilis herself would have prospered in the USA and her and her children would have returned on holiday many times to Wexford. Emigration, while it may have traumatic, was for many a very positive move.

The reviews of the book are generally very good, review in the Independent, "accomplished and at times enigmatic", here, Telegraph, "quietly magnificent" here, London Times, "beautifully executed ", here. Irish Independent, here. In the Irish Times John Waters writes on the book, Tóibín and much more here - Novel that could touch soul of the nation.

Heaney's Next Book

Seamus Heaney is everywhere! I've just finished Stepping Stones and at present I'm listening to the Collected Poems on CD thanks to Navan Library. I've got as far as Field Work.

He appears as part of the Dublin Writers Festival in the National Concert Hall, Dublin on 2 June.

His next book is a translation The Testament of Cresseid & Seven Fables by the fifteenth century Scottish poet Robert Henryson translated from the Scots, published by Faber (£12.99) on 11 Jun. Heaney has an article on the project in yesterday's Guardian and the Guardian's Saturday Poem is an extract from the work.

Kilkenny Public Sculpture

On a visit to Kilkenny city recently I came across this public sculpture in Parliament Street. You just suddenly come upon it, unannounced, and you have to look at it twice to make sure that it's not just normal street furniture. A most striking head, made of stone with a simple bronze band around it. It looks so solid and permanent and confident of its own importance. A nice position, I thought, in front of a bank.

The sculpture is called Cainneach (Saint Canice - patron of Kilkenny) and it was made by Spanish sculptor Saturio Alonso in1999.

"This sculpture is made of Kilkenny limestone and Bronze. Kilkenny is named after Saint Canice who was born in 514 AD. The sculpture is a symbol of Celtic mythology and the head is the symbol of spiritually" - Information on the County Council website. Any sentence which includes "symbol" "Celtic mythology" and "spirituality" makes my eyes glaze over and my dander rise if both can happen together. Sculpture should be about solididy not something vague called spirituality.

The sculptor, Saturio Alonso, was born in Spain in 1954 and currently lives in Ireland. His background is as a painter and graphic designer. He was a member of the group El Cubri in Spain until his move to Ireland in 1980. He is a founder member of Artcore, a mentor in KCAT, Callan Co. Kilkenny and his work can be found in various public spaces around Ireland and in private and public collections in Europe and America.

Swift Festival and Competition.

Some people will do anything for publicity! See the picture and article in this week's Meath Chronicle.

Swift Festival in Trim 2 - 5 July 2009.

Satire competition closing date is Friday 5 June. Details here.

Manchester United

Disappointing result last night. I've been a Manchester United supporter since 1958. I remember reading about the Munich crash in the Irish Independent the day after. I remember the disappointment when they were beaten 2-0 by Bolton in the cup final that year. Nat Lofthouse bundled Harry Gregg, the United goalkeeper, plus ball into the net for the second goal.

I remember Saturday evenings waiting for the BBC Sports Report at five o'clock to hear all the results, a litany in a perfect English accent. I remember United players like Albert Quixall and Dennis Violett. Favourite United player of all time? Bobby Charlton. Great goal here on YouTube. George Best? He had his moments.

I remember watching the 1968 European Final in the TV room in St Pat's, Drumcondra. I think it was in the middle of exam week and there was a small group of United supporters there.

I have never actually attended a Manchester United game but now I'm retired it's something I have to do.

Thought for the Day: As you get older more and more of your sentences start with "I remember".

Oxford Professor of Poetry 2

So even more problems with the Oxford Professor of Poetry position. Ruth Padel has resigned, a step which seemed inevitable one it was revealed that she alerted journalists to the allegations against one of her rivals, Derek Walcott. Reports on the Guardian website here and here. Either poet would I think have made a fine professor. As well as Ruth Padel's poetry her books on reading poems based on a newspaper column provide great insights to reading and writing poetry.

A field day for conspiracy theorists of course. Poet Jackie Kay is quoted as saying "The old boys have closed in on her. It would not have happened to a man, and I am very sad". What about Walcott - didn't he have to drop out of the race?

The forgotten man in all this is the third candidate for the position, Indian poet, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra (picture right). Usually described as "little-known" in British newspapers this merely means that we know little about him. He is in his 60s, has published numerous books of poetry, has edited literary magazines and held teaching positions. Guardian article on him here. George Szirtes has a nice comment on the whole affair in his posting.

Reading Panorama

A panorama of Thursday night's reading in the Village Hall, Knightsbridge. Picture and stitching by Paddy Smith who also acted as MC for the night. Multi-talented. Spot who was asleep during my reading!

Happy Birthday Bob!

Today is Bob Dylan's birthday. He was born in 1941 so he is 68 today.

An article from the health section of the Irish Times earlier in the month entitled Are you tired of feeling tired all the time? with reference to Dylan's "amazing energy".

Aquilegia

Aquilegia pictured in the garden this morning. Gardeners are divided into two camps- those who see the weeds in a garden and those who see the flowers. I belong to the latter I hope. Jimmy Reynolds from Trim, who developed Butterstream Garden here (now alas closed), had a saying which might be a quote from someone else about it being important to look at the flowers not the weeds in a garden. Plenty of weeds at the moment thanks to the rain. Lots of nice gardening quotes here.

Jimmy Reynolds has been immortalised by Trim novelist Patrick Dunne as his hero Illaun Bowe's gardener boyfriend in his series of novels featuring that archaeologist. I've just finished A Carol for the Dead which is based on a gruesome find near Newgrange. A great page turner!

Anyway the aquilegia are blooming at the moment and the peonys should be next. I always found that our garden was past its best by July and was very plain for the reast of the year so taoday I'm putting in Dahlias and Gladlioli - they should provide colour later in the year.

Boyne Reading and Open Mic

A very enjoyable Reading and Open Mic session in the Knightsbridge Village Hall last night. The audience was similar to our first night, about 35, and we had 12 readers in the open mic. Paddy Meegan, the Meath football legend, was the first to read and he gave a delightful reading of a short story slightly adapted from his recently published book "From the Life Around Me". The audience was enthralled at the clear well constructed story which gave a vivid glimpse into life in Meath all those years ago without any trace of sentimentality.

I was the second featured reader. I read nine poems which were well recieved. I have decided that the audience needs to be told quite a lot about poems before they are read - they hear them only once, no chance to reread. This means that while they know in general what the poem is about you hope and expect that they will be suprised and delighted by the way it is expressed.

The open mic readers read prose and poetry, all very interesting and well recieved. It was nice to see that some of our friends from LitLab have travelled from Cavan and some of the Mullingar Scribblers also attended. Paddy Smith proved a most genial and efficient host and only used used his timing bell once!

Boyne Writers Group is delighted that this venture seems to be a success and is filling a need in the area. There was a great feeling of fellowship among writers there, writers reading to writers in the main, plenty of applause and congratulations - an encouraging and refreshing night.

Navan based poet Tom French has an interesting reference to Paddy Meegan in a poem (the bottom of the page) in a selection of poems in the Manchester Review. There is an article here on Paddy in a recent Meath Chronicle.

Picture (by Paddy Smith) is of Paddy Meegan and myself at the reading.

Boyne Reading and Open Mic 2

This evening the second Boyne Readings and Open Mic event takes place. The featured readers are Paddy Meegan and myself. Paddy Meegan will be reading extracts from his book ‘From The Life Around Me’ which includes reflections on modern life, recollections of people he knew and incidents from his eventful life. And he has had an eventful life because he is now aged 87 and was on the famous Meath all-Ireland winning teams of 1949 and 1954.

I have finalised a list of poems to read. I thought it a good idea to have available a small chapbook of my poems for the reading so our friends in ePrint have produced Ashes and Snow containing nine of my poems which have been published in small magazines. It's a nice idea and is relatively easy and cheap to produce. I regretted not having something like this at the WhiteHouse reading in Limerick.

Let's hope we a get as good a crowd tonight as we had at the May Reading. The Village Hall, Knightsbridge Complex, Longwood Road, Trim 8pm.

Liverpool Suitcases

A recent post about a public sculpture in Dun Laoghaire reminded me that Liverpool has a large number of public sculptures. Above is one of the most original of them, situated half way up Hope Street. The sculpture A Case History (1998) was designed by sculptor John King and it shows 27 suitcases and bags in concrete - all have luggage tags with the names of famous people who had some connection with the city and the area.

These include McCartney, Lennon and Harrison and also Stuart Sutcliffe, an early member of the Beatles, but also comedian Arthur Askey, author Charles Dickens and conductor Malcolm Sargent. One of the "cases" is a package from the publishers Faber addressed to the Liverpool Poets: Adrian Henri (1932-2000), Roger McGough (b.1937) and Brian Patten (b.1946).

A noticeboard alongside this public art installation has a numbered diagram giving information about the people to whom the suitcases and packages 'belong'. More details here.

I thought of the suitcases at Auschwitz piled high on display. Maybe the artist wanted us to make the connection. I also thought of the large number of immigrants from Ireland who arrived in Liverpool in the past, some to stay, some to move on to America. Again this may be an intended reference. Suitcases can mean so many different things - from emigration to holidays - that they are very powerful symbols. But is it art?

Dirty Tricks in Oxford Professor of Poetry Election

Poet Ruth Padel has won Saturday's formal ballot to become Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford. The former Chair of the Poetry Society is the first female post-holder in the 300-year history of the role. She defeated Indian poet Arvind Mehrotra, who is currently professor of English at the University of Allahabad.

The Nobel prizewinner, Derek Walcott, withdrew from the race last week after an anonymous letter campaign against him. Documents containing details of a sexual harassment claim made against Walcott by a Harvard student in 1982 were sent to between 100 and 200 of the 150,000 Oxford academics and graduates who are eligible to take part in the vote. There is no suggestion that Padel or her supporters were behind the campaign.

List of recent Guardian articles on the affair here. Irish Times article here. The relevant page on the Oxford website. Guardian interview with Ruth Padel.

Ruth Padel takes over from Christopher Ricks. Christopher Ricks published a book on Bob Dylan while Professor of Poetry. Previous people to hold the position include Matthew Arnold, W H Auden and Seamus Heaney.

Vote Early Vote Often!

The BBC have a poetry season on at the moment on radio and TV. The website is here. Unfortunately none of the video content of the site is available in Ireland - "Not available in your area". It's running a poll on the site -"Who is the Nation's Favourite Poet?" presumably the nation in question is the United Kingdom/Britain/Great Britain.

The shortlist of 30 poets was compiled in consultation with The Poetry Society and The Arts Council and seems to be "British" in a broad sort of way. Thus it contains both Eliot and Sylvia Plath, Yeats and Heaney. Both "Irish" poets were born in the United Kingdom of course. So "the nation's favourite poet" can't be Walt Whitman or Rainer Maria Rilke. I was able to vote a number of times in this though I think there is a limit to the number of votes allowed from each IP address. I voted for Yeats of course!

There is a misspelling on the Yeats page - "WB Yeats reads his own poem, The Lake Isle of Innesfree" though in the text further down the island is correctly spelled. In the Yeats biography there is this lovely awkward sentence which reads like it was agreed as a compromise by a committee of Anglo-Irish civil servants after lengthy discussion - "In his poem Easter, 1916 he commemorates the passing of the men he knew who died during the Easter Rising."

The National Library's Life and Works of W B Yeats online resource is well worth a visit - the BBC site has a link to it.

The BBC site also has a list of the programmes in the series. I watched a repeat of a programme on Ted Hughes last night - excellent with input by Heaney and Al Alvarez. Many of the programmes are on BBC 4, available on Sky as an additional channel but you can't record from it on the Sky box.

View from the Back Door

The garden is thriving thanks to the rain. In the foreground the chives have flowered. The clematis on the arch is in full flower, though it has fewer flowers than last year probably because I cut it back last autumn. The arch was originally wooden but it was blown over two years ago so now there are metal uprights supporting it. It also has honeysuckle which will bloom later.

The clematis is a vigorously growing plant with no where to go. I did extend a trellis to the right and allowed the clematis to grow along it but it also was a casualty of the storm and was not rebuilt. It did block the full view of the garden from the kitchen window. There are two views (!) on gardens, 1. you should be able to see everything from the kitchen window and 2. the kitchen window view should be a taster which tempts you outside to explore the garden. I hold the latter view.

The sycamore tree is in full flower also though the flowers being green are difficult to see. Under the tree the bluebells are to the right but the cow parsley is head-high on the wild patch. Trim poet Tommy Murray, has a good description of "lace curtains of cow parsley" in a poem on this page.

The red X at the bottom of the garden came from railway gates at a closed west of Ireland railway station.