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.

A Coolaney Wake

One of the poems of mine included in Census 3 the Seven Towers Anthology is called Invoice. Some time ago a local historian in Sligo gave me a large account book from Coleman's business premises in Coolaney, Co Sligo since that was my native place. The shop was a typical Irish country store selling almost everything. The account book covered the period from the early 1900s until the business collapsed mid-century.

I found the two entries above fascinating (click on the images to enlarge them). They detail the goods bought for a wake - 4 lbs 2 ozs tobacco, 18 large loaves of bread! Though notice that 2 lbs 5 ozs of the tobacco was returned after the wake.

The date of the entries was 24 and 26 June 1923. Interesting to note that the son of the shop owner, Michael Coleman, had been very active in the war of independence and had taken the anti-Treaty side in the civil war. By June 1923 with the end of the civil war he was either interned or on the run.

I used the entries as a found poem as part of a sequence on events in Co. Sligo at that time and changed the date to suit my story. Here is part of it. If you want to read the lot buy the anthology.

Invoice 15 August 1922

Six pounds of tobacco: Three pounds one shilling.
Two gross clay pipes: Seven and ninepence.
Half dozen boxes of matches: Sixpence.
One gallon of oil: two and tenpence.
Eight ounces of snuff: Six and eightpence.
One bottle of whiskey: Sixteen shillings.

One dozen long wax candles: One and six.
Six yards of black ribbon: Two shillings.
One pair of black gloves: Two and six.
A dozen handkerchiefs: Six shillings.

Scarf and hatband for hearse: Five and six.
Hearse driver: Ten shillings.
One brown habit: One pound five shillings.
One elm coffin fully mounted: Six pounds ten shillings.

Total: Seventeen pounds two shillings and ninepence.
Paid in full.

Anachronisms

I understand there is a TV programme which is quite popular at the moment called Downton Abbey. Have you heard of it? Even seen it? Did you spot any of these verbal anachronisms?

In my Asking for Directions MS I had lines in a series of poems about 1932 (Eucharistic Congress in Ireland and my Grandmother died of TB) which went:

They bought a radio,
fixed it in the corridor so we could join in prayer,
sing hymns, listen to the Pope.

During editing Noel King said, Would they have called it a radio? Immediately I changed it to wireless.

Listowel Writers Week Competitions

This from Listowel Writers Week:

One Week Left to Enter our Competitions.

There is only one week left to enter our competitions, so if you have not done so, you need to get organised very soon! There is €30,000 in prize money to be won. There are plenty of competitions to choose from. See Below.

Closing date for receipt of entries is next Friday 2nd March 2012.
Any other questions do not hesitate to contact us on info@writersweek.ie

Competitions:
The Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year
Bryan MacMahon Short Story
Duais Foras Na Gaeilge
Single Poem
Poetry Collection
Creative Writing for Youth
Creative Writing for Special Category
Eamon Keane Full Length Play
Writers Week Originals - short story, poem or essay
Tell Your Story
Writing in Prisons
Irish Post/Stena Line New Writing Competition

Plenty there to tempt everyone but entry fees are relatively high. For the single poem competition it's 10 euro per poem with no reduction for quantity, no four for the price of three as often happens in other competitions. For the Cardiff International Poetry Competition the entry fee is 8 pounds sterling but the first prize is 5,000 pounds sterling.

The prizes vary considerably for the Listowel competitions. The prize for the single poem competition is 700 euro, for the short story it's 2,000 euro, and for the Tell your Story competition it's 1,000 euro. Entry fee the same, 10 euro, for those. No online entry facilities either.

Don't tell them I said anything! My entries have been posted.

Census 3 Launched

A very well attended, enjoyable launch in the Irish Writers' Centre last evening. Thanks to Sarah and Oran of Seven Towers and to the Writers' Centre. The anthology is an impressive volume, with over 90 writers represented in the 200 pages. The usual great variety of material, poetry, story, drama, memoir from writers in Ireland, UK, Europe and the USA.

Eamonn Lynskey was the genial host. He also edited the anthology and read the final poem of the evening, his When People Say. It starts:

When people say "I'll try to be there",
wwwwthey won't turn up.
When people say "I won't forget about it",
wwwwforget about it

A great reading aloud piece.

Many familiar names in the volume, including some published in Boyne Berries. Seamus Cashman, Patrick Chapman, Ines Dillon, Edward O'Dwyer etc etc. Doghouse was well represented - the editor, Noel King, has two poems and other poets from the same stable (kennel maybe!) included are Greagóir Ó Dúill, Alan Garvey, Catherine Ann Cullen (Reading, above), Liam Aungier, John W. Sexton, Tommy Frank O'Connor and Monica Corish.

Three Boyne Writers are included, Orla Fay, Evan Costigan and myself. I was delighted to have two poems included, my found poem Invoice 15th August 1922 and What I'll Need for the Lecture.

Attendees were invited to put their names in a box from which a number were drawn to read. Both myself and Evan were drawn and I read my What I'll Need for the Lecture poem. It's a nice one to read because it demands a lecture style. One of those present said to me afterwards You just have been a teacher. I took that as a compliment for the way I read!

That same poem has been edited quite a bit for the collection and as I read it I began to have second thoughts about the changes. I'll see!

You can buy Census 3 The Third Seven Towers Anthology on the website. At 12 euro it's great value as a snapshot of the poetry and prose being written and performed at the moment.

Launch of Census 3, the Seven Towers Anthology

I hope to attend the launch of Census 3, The Third Seven Towers Anthology at the Irish Writers Centre, 19 Parnell Square on this Wednesday 22 February at 7 o’clock. I'm delighted to be included. I submitted three poems and I'm not sure which one has been included.

Orla Fay and Evan Costigan of Boyne Writers are also included and many other well known Irish writers are among the just under a hundred writers and artists included. International writers included New Zealand poet Ross Hattaway, New York based Oklahoma poet Quincy Lehr and San Franciscan Lora Lee Templeton.

You can buy Census 3 at www.seventowers.ie. If you buy it online before the launch date you get the e-book free. Seven Towers is a not for profit venture, staffed entirely by volunteers. All monies goes back to publish more great books.

Poetry Collection Almost There

It's nearly ready! My first poetry collection entitled Asking for Directions, after one of the poems, is in the final stages of editing and proof reading (should that be proofreading or even proof-reading?).

I found the process with Doghouse Books editor Noel King fascinating. Many fellow poets said things like I hope he didn't make you change your poems. Well, we sat down together and spent quite a lot of time going over the manuscript I had submitted. Lines, stanzas and even whole poems were queried and questioned. Some lines, some stanzas and some poems were jettisoned with the result that the poems were improved and the whole collection made more coherent. The punctuation was improved considerably, many commas were inserted.

A cover image is not yet selected though a short list has been established and this should be finalised in the next week or so. Then to choose a date for a launch in Trim, sometime in May or June. Among the other poets being published this year by Doghouse are Barbara Smith and James Lawless. I'm in good company.

Poetry and Classical Music at Ballymaloe

Didn't go out on Valentine's Night? Stayed inside writing tender/bitter love poems? Here's a chance to enjoy yourself!

A Melody of Words - Poetry and Classical Music at the Grainstore, Ballymaloe House, Shanagarry, Co. Cork. Friday 24 February 8pm

A wonderful night of poetry and harp in the beautiful setting of Ballymaloe.

Acclaimed poets Thomas McCarthy and Gerard Smyth will read from their work. Throughout the evening classical harpist Sarah Noonan will perform pieces by J.S. Bach, Grandjany, Weiss,Hasselmans, Tournier, Dussek, O' Carolan and Salzedo.

Tickets €15. Concession €10. Ballymaloe House are offering an excellent package deal of €60 for early 6pm dinner plus event or €140 for dinner, B&B and entrance to the event!

Ballymaloe pride themselves on offering a warm welcome, tastefully decorated bedrooms and award-winning cuisine which celebrates the best of local, seasonal produce.

For more details please contact Rebecca at The Grainstore - thegrainstore@ballymaloe.ie

Éalú - TG4

The first programme of Magamedia's new season of Éalú starts on this Thursday, 16 February at 10.30 pm. This programme, A Pal in Prison, features Limerick man Sean Bourke who sprang Britain's most wanted KGB spy from Wormwood scrubs in 1966. George Blake was serving the longest sentence ever handed down by a British court when he befriended Bourke in prison and they hatched a plan that left intelligence around the world baffled.

Programmes 2 and 3 tell the stories of the escapes of Paddy Flemming and Francie McGuigan from Mountjoy and from Long Kesh respectively. There is an Éalú facebook page.

I think programme 4 is the one that deals with Frank Carty's escape from Sligo Jail. I play the part of a history expert in that one. Quite well actually!

TG4 are using the Kilgannon photograph of Sligo County Council 1920, above with the empty chair representing the imprisoned Carty, on the website at the moment. The photo will also appear in my new book.

Love Poems - The Guardian

For the day that's in it. Last Saturday's Guardian had a feature entitled Love poems: writers choose their favourites for Valentine's Day - Is there a perfect love poem? Authors and poets choose those verses that have special meaning for them. It included the full text of all the poems.

An interesting selection with fewer moderns than you might expect. The absence of Yeats is unexpected and lamentable.

Seamus Heaney chooses "Whoso List to Hunt" by Sir Thomas Wyatt. Wyatt gets two poems in the piece but John Donne has three.

Mourid Barghouti, the Palestinian poet and writer, chooses a poem by recently deceased Wisława Szymborska Thank-You Note" where she expresses gratitude for "those I don't love" because "from a rendezvous to a letter / is just a few days or weeks, / not an eternity."

The full list:
"Love After Love" by Derek Walcott
"Thank-You Note" by Wisława Szymborska
"The Silent Lover" by Walter Raleigh
"Air and Angels" By John Donne
"Epitaph", by Lady Katherine Dyer
"Love and Death" by Lord Byron
"They Flee From Me" by Sir Thomas Wyatt
"It Is Here" by Harold Pinter
"Whoso List to Hunt" by Sir Thomas Wyatt
"Animals" by Frank O'Hara
Untitled, Anon, before 1530
"Touch" by Thom Gunn
"The Good-Morrow" by John Donne
"Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal, Now the White" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
"Valentine" by John Fuller
"Corinnae Concubitus" by Christopher Marlowe
"To His Mistress Going to Bed" by John Donne
"Echo" by Carol Ann Duffy

My New Book - The Blurb

I can't wait to read this book! From the Four Courts Press website.

"Using a wide array of sources and interviews, Michael Farry has produced a balanced, comprehensive and absorbing study of county Sligo from 1912 when the Irish Party controlled all political affairs to 1922–3 when the county saw considerable action during the civil war. This wide-ranging study offers fascinating new insights into the Irish Revolution and details how the county moved from being one of the most loyal to the Irish Party to one of the best-organised Sinn Féin counties. Farry is especially good on how both organised unionism and the strong labour movement in Sligo reacted to the rise of Sinn Féin, its election victory in 1918 and the subsequent Truce, Treaty and civil war. His use of the recently released BMH accounts as well as British military sources results in a richly detailed examination of the IRA campaign and the British reaction. It examines the superior attitude of the IRA towards ‘mere politicians’ during the Truce period and explains why Sligo saw so much conflict during the civil war."

Final editing still to be done though, photographs selected, maps ready, cover not yet finalised. Almost there!!

Bram Stoker in Collooney

I'm grateful to Noel French of Meath Heritage Centre for pointing out a mention of Sligo in an upcoming book on Bram Stoker, the Dublin-born creator of Dracula.

A long-lost notebook belonging to Stoker, written between 1871 and 1881, was recently discovered in the attic of one of his great grandsons and is being published to coincide with the Centenary of Stoker’s death. This personal Notebook is said to show Stoker’s private thoughts and his developing style that foreshadows the journalistic technique of Dracula.

One undated diary entry refers to a trip to Collooney, Co. Sligo, which Stoker describes as the “most unbusy place in Ireland”. In the same town, he overhears some disparaging remarks made by a “peasant” about one of the political parties of the time. “They do go round an’ round an’ round an’ round, jist for all the world like a dog lookin’ for the head of his bed.” This, together with numerous other entries, reveals Stoker’s precision and keen ear for recreating the local dialect.

Natives of Coolaney, like myself, never thought much of Collooney, five miles away and a constant source of postal confusion.

More here and here.

The Lost Journal of Bram Stoker: The Dublin Years is written by Dacre Stoker and Prof Elizabeth Miller and will be published by Robson Press on 8 March, 2012, priced at STG£18.99.

Irish Writers' Centre Lunchtime Readings

Lunchtime Readings will run on Fridays at 1pm throughout February and March in the Irish Writers' Centre starting this Friday.

These readings, which are free, are organised in association with Poetry Ireland and will alternate every week between prose and poetry, offering audiences the chance to experience a wide-range of literary talent.

Friday, 10 February, Prose: Paul Murray
17 February, Poetry: Paul Grattan.
24 February, Prose: Shane Connaughton.
2 March, Poetry: Geraldine Mitchell.
9 March, Prose: Anne Sharpe.
16 March, Poetry: Paul Perry.
23 March, Prose: Mary Costello.
30 March, Poetry: Denise Blake

And on Friday, 10 February, the 2012 Over The Edge Poetry Book Showcase featuring Moya Cannon, Stephen Murray, Ndrek Gjini, Lorna Shaughnessy, Jack McCann, Mae Leonard, Sarah Griffin, Pauline Fayne, Pete Mullineaux, Susan Lindsay, Kate Dempsey, Brian Slattery, Karen O'Connor & Sean Kavanagh will take place at The Kitchen @ The Museum, Spanish Arch, Galway.

Noel Monahan: A Celebration

Noel Monahan at Backstage: A Celebration of the Award Winning Poet & Playwright will be held at the Backstage Theatre, Longford in association with Longford Arts Office on Friday, 10 February 8:30pm. Free admission but booking essential.

To celebrate the work of this award winning poet and playwright, a number of writers from the various writers groups in County Longford will read from Noel’s five books of poetry. The evening will be interspersed with music and song.

Noel has been involved at various times with the Cavan/Meath LitLab group and has facilitated workshops for the group. Noel, with Heather Brett, runs Windows Publications which has published many up and coming writers including LitLab members and especially encourages writing in schools.

Noel, originally from Granard, has published five collections of poetry. His most recent publication was Curve of The Moon published by Salmon poetry in 2011. His literary awards include among others, The SeaCat National Award organised by Poetry Ireland. In 2001 he won The PJ O’Connor RTE Radio Drama Award for his play Broken Cups and in 2002 he was awarded The A.S.T.I. Achievements Award for his contribution to literature at home and abroad.

His work has been translated into Italian, French, Romanian and Russian. His most recent plays include: The Children of Lir performed by Livin’ Dred Theatre which appeared at Backstage.

Wisława Szymborska R.I.P.

Polish poet and Nobel Laureate Wisława Szymborska dies on Wednesday 1 February in Krakow, aged 88. Szymborska was described by Czesław Miłosz as "a poet of consciousness... she speaks to us, living at the same time, as one of us, reserving her private matters for herself."

I mentioned her in this blog entry from 2010. And she will also get a mention in my poetry collection from Doghouse in a poem published in THE SHOp magazine in Autumn/Winter 2010 called My Interest in Polish Poetry has been Aroused.

I love this early poem of hers, that line, The hour of do-we-vanish-too-without-a-trace is brilliant in its simplicity.

Four a.m.

The hour between night and day.
The hour between toss and turn.
The hour of thirty-year-olds.

The hour swept clean for rooster's crowing.
The hour when the earth takes back its warm embrace.
The hour of cool drafts from extinguished stars.
The hour of do-we-vanish-too-without-a-trace.

Empty hour.
Hollow. Vain.
Rock bottom of all the other hours.

No one feels fine at four a.m.
If ants feel fine at four a.m.,
we're happy for the ants. And let five a.m. come
if we've got to go on living.

Wislawa Szymborska. Translated by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh.

More of her poetry here. The Guardian obituary here.

Census 3, The Third Seven Towers Anthology

Seven Towers, Dublin have just announced the publication of Census 3, The Third Seven Towers Anthology. It will be launched by its writers at the Irish Writers Centre, 19 Parnell Square, on Wednesday 22nd February at 7 pm. I'm delighted that one of my poems is included. Two other Boyne Writers, Orla Fay and Evan Costigan, are also included.

Not sure which of the three I submitted has been included - it has been quite a while.

This anthology contains over 90 authors from every part of the globe and every possible age and in every imaginable genre.

All of the included authors have performed at a Seven Towers Event and there is excellent writing in every imaginable genre - poetry, prose, short stories, experimental fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and so many more goodies.

The anthology can be ordered online at the special price of 12 Euros (no postage!). Others included are Noel Duffy, Noel King, Pauline Fayne, Alan Garvey, Ross Hattaway, Oran Ryan, Roger Hudson, Patrick Joyce, Eileen Keane, Quincy R. Lehr, Eamonn P Lynskey, Tommy F O'Connor and Greagoir O'Duill.

Boyne Writers Group AGM - Chairman's Address

Boyne Writers Group chairperson, Paddy Smith, welcomed the members to the 2011 AGM held in Trim on Thursday, 2 February by saying “All the time, I count my blessings – and among them is the blessing of belonging to a writers’ group such as the Boyne Writers. It has transformed my life. I shudder to think what I might be doing if I wasn’t in the group: playing golf!”

He mentioned what was the year’s highlight for the group, the publication of the tenth issue of Boyne Berries and described it as “a fine booklet that we can all be very proud of”. He said that though it was a costly exercise it was well worth while.

Paddy was delighted that the group’s core activity, writing, was going well. Members produced some good stuff during the year. Many of them appeared in various publications, were successful in competitions, had published books and Paddy himself had three of his plays performed.

He posed the question: Are we better writers as a result of being members of the Boyne Writers Group? Answering it for himself he said “I personally feel that I have learned much about writing as a direct result of my involvement with the group. Not necessarily from the entire process of criticism, although this does help of course, but from the process of writing. If I wasn’t in a writers’ group I certainly wouldn’t be writing as much. Also from the process of listening – listening to what others are writing”.

He did go on to warn that, in his opinion some of the basics of good writing, such as punctuation and grammar, are being ignored by some or even many, members - “If we go forth into the world as writers, seeking publication here and there, we should care about such matters.”

Paddy did go on to discuss some of the group’s non-core activities which, he said, had not being going so well. Our Boyne Readings, for example were not resumed after last summer’s break mainly through lack of enthusiasm because of small attendances. He discussed what we expect from these readings and how we might attract larger audiences.

The Boyne Writers’ international satirical writing competition which we organise for the Trim Swift Festival has not been attracting large entries and in 2011 had a record low number of entries: “Is there no interest at all in this ancient form of commentary: satire? One would have thought that in these turbulent times satire would come into its own”. Again the group need to consider this.

In conclusion Paddy said how much he is looking forward to the coming year in the Boyne Writers and he hoped that this will be the year it all happens for each and every member.

Gregory O'Donoghue International Poetry Competition

This is a nice touch - an email to all those commended in a poetry competition which includes details from the judge and friendly encouragement for the future. Well done Munster Literature Centre!

Dear Writers,

We are writing to notify you that your one of your poems has received a commendation in the Gregory O'Donoghue International Poetry Competition. To view your listing, please visit: http://www.corkpoetryfest.net/prize.html

In his blog the competition judge says 'In the end, the top thirteen poems distinguished themselves in different ways. Of the 1700 poems the winning poem really stood out for me, while there was some difficulty in deciding which poems to include in the “highly commended' list and which bubbled just below the surface. I decided to publish a list of 70 commended poems, wishing to reassure many entrants of their achievement ... "

Although we can only publish the top 13 poems, we would like to congratulate you on the commendation and hope it serves to encourage you with your writing. It is certainly an achievement for your work to be distinguished out of 1700 poems.

Wishing you loads of writing inspiration,

The Munster Literature Centre

Poetry Competition Results

The results from two competitions just announced. No joy in either I'm afraid.

The Plough Prize results are here, with the long and short lists. No addresses or country credit given so I don't know how many Irish featured but two names I recognise, Peter Goulding and Richard Halperin, who both made the long list for the short poem competition. Well done.

However in the Cafe Writers Competition Dublin resident, David Mohan, took first prize of £1000 for his poem Wildfire. Out of 2146 poems entered! Well done David. Don't know if the results are on the website but all entrants got an email with the results. Nice touch!

Winning and commended titles here were generally of the quirky, interesting type rather than the single word type. Here's the full list of titles: Wildfire, The Burnt Child, Surgery Dog, Hunting Elmer Fudd, When colour Left the World, Siren, Mémorial Des Deportations, The Day God was Angry, Fish Dancing in Desert, Piss Pot.