All Ireland Poetry Day: Louth

There's a wonderful broadcast happening on Dundalk FM at 11am, called Bookends, which is hosted by the capable Eileen Corcoran. The programme will focus on two poetry books launched in Dundalk recently – “The Angels Share”, by Barbara Smith (yes, me!) and “Once Upon Reflection” by Petra Berntssen. 

Petra Berntsson is a visual artist born in Sweden, now living in Dundalk. She has combined her paintings with writing from other poets and writers. The connections happened naturally and poems emerged from paintings, and paintings grew from words. The end result, “Once Upon Reflection” is a beautiful book, inspired by Petra’s years living in Ireland.

The programme will also feature four Louth people readings poems which they love.They are: Cllr. Jennifer Green, Cathaoirleach, Dundalk Town Council; Pat Keating an active participant in the cultural life of Dundalk,; Tommy Kelly, a visual artist, comic writer, and social commentator and Cathal Cassidy, a broadcaster on Dundalk FM 100.

As if that isn't plenty to be going on with, it's then off to Dundalk Instutute of Technology for a 12.30 pm lunchtime reading with myself and John Noonan. John is a Longford native and the 2012 winner of the Goldsmith Prize for his poem 'Glass Maker'. He is also heavily involved in the Dundalk Writers Group.

There's always something happening in Louth for All Ireland Poetry Day and this year is no exception.

Liffey Sound

I had a great time yakking my head off to Niamh - fair play to her and Liffey Sound for inviting me round to tea and allowing me to bring some poetry to air there.

The theme of the show was A Woman's View and it is now available to DL, thanks to the wonder of Niamh. Fastest hour I've ever had, even as we were keeping half eye on the England v Germany match.

Take a look on the side bar too, there are so many different writers to choose from to listen to, such as David Mohan, Nuala Ni Chonchuir, Maeve O'Sullivan and Kate Dempsey - even the bould Peter Goulding (who is busy writing World Cup poems - as you read!) to pick just a few. The shows last an hour long, but be warned, it's a quick hour!

The Intimacy of Radio

I did another interview on local radio recently with Harry Lee of Dundalk FM. Before you scoff at the idea of local radio, think of this: through internet technology, this community station (and many, many others) are available to a much wider audience than they are through the wavelength restrictions imposed by their license conditions.

Anyhoo, through the generous help of the wonderful qarrtsiluni, I've been able to get hosting for a recording that I made on Wednesday. To hear the interview/reading click on that link just there. I hope you enjoy the discussion of poetry, life in general and the Irish economic downturn!

Radio, Radio...

I've been asked to go on local radio tomorrow morning - the station is Dundalk FM and if you check on the webpage, they have a listen online facility.

I'm not sure whether they've got the capacity for downloadable podcasts, so if you happen to be near a computer tomorrow morning tune in at about 10:45 to Dundalk Daily with Harry Lee. It is repeated later on in the evening at 10pm, so I might have worked out how to record it myself at that stage... Just click on the red fly past banner near the top of the Dundalk FM page to listen.

I'll be talking a little about myself, as well as reading a few poems from the book (whilst trying not to cringe).

This evening, I'm off to Dublin to support another Doghouse pup: Hugh O'Donnell, whose book I have had the pleasure of reading from cover to cover before it was even published - we proof read each other's work the day before they both went to print. Hugh's work is widely published in Ireland, and he's had the privilege to have been published in Poetry Ireland Review many times (the Irish equivalent of Poetry Review or thereabouts), indicating the standard of his work.

Indeed Hugh's book Planting a Mouth will be launched by it's now retiring editor, Peter Sirr. I wouldn't recommend reading someone's collection in one sitting normally, but Hugh's book is a very good read :)

Update: a friend and colleague has been able to catch the interview, so, as soon as I receive it I will post for the delectation of you all :)

You'll Never Guess!!!

I sent a poem to the RTE Radio 1 programme, The Poetry Programme two weeks ago in response to a request for poems on the subject of Valentine's Day. RTE Radio 1 would be sort of the Irish national equivalent to BBC Radio 4, except without the plummy voices ;)

I received an email back from producer Aoife Nic Cormaic, thanking me for my contribution and telling me that I had been shortlisted for reading during the programme.

I didn't get my hopes up too much and we tuned in on Saturday evening, as myself and hubby were eating our weekly sit-down-and-catch-up-meal, but we missed the opening minutes of the programme, due to the potatoes needing mashing.

We listened to Sally Emerson and Michael O'Loughlin discussing love poetry with the presenter well-known poet Irish poet Pat Boran, citing and quoting some great examples from old and contemporary poets. This was interspersed with readings by Catherine Brennan of reader's contributions.

As the programme progressed hubby said reassuringly, 'I'm sure they'll read yours out.'

I said, no, surely there would be stiff competition and I'd be lucky to get mine read, especially as the short half-hour programme might not fit in the advertised quota of ten. By the close, I wasn't too disappointed and the great poem 'Atlas' by U.A. Fanthorpe was picked out as a particular favourite and read out by Sally Emerson, which made up for it.

Imagine my surprise when I checked the website and clicked on the link for Saturday's programme. The first poem read out was the one I had sent in. Missing the first few minutes of the programme had been crucial, after all!!!

You can listen here if you have Real Player (which I think is still free to DL, if you've not got it) - just fast forward past the news and weather to about 2:50 mins. It's called 'Cupidity'.

The Atlas poem is later, around about 26:00 mins. or so, but the whole programme is interesting in its own right.

You can also catch up with previous Poetry Programmes, and listen to them if you like what you see on the RTE menu!