Orla Fay: REM at Slane Castle

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

REM at Slane Castle

There has been a lot of coverage in the papers about the 40th anniversary of concerts at Slane Castle. The first was held in August 1981 when Thin Lizzy headlined and a young U2 performed. I remember the motorbikes roaring to Slane on the Trim to Navan road to see Bruce Springsteen and Queen in the 1980s. My first concert was REM in July 1995. I wrote this poem about it a couple of years ago and edited it tonight.

REM at Slane Castle, July 1995

I danced around the hill triumphantly

to Losing my Religion,

sang the lyrics with conviction.

When darkness came fireworks fizzed.

Earlier Oasis had left their microphones on,

Liam Gallagher exiting the stage

a classic villain,

to blaring, screeching,

drum piercing scratches.

Belly played Feed the Tree

which I loved from some grunge

compilation album my older brother owned.

It had been a year since Kurt died.

I sewed patches adorned

with his face to my denim schoolbag.

I thought I knew everything.

Nightswimming was yet to deserve

a quiet night, and everybody would hurt.

Orla Fay

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"Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea."

"When the heart weeps for what it has lost the spirit laughs for what it has found."

"(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands"

Orla Fay is a member of Boyne Writers Group. In 2001 she won the Meath Chronicle/Bookwise Short Story Competition and in 2003 the Drogheda Creative Writers Adult Poetry Competition. In 2004 she had a poem commended in the Golden Pen Poetry Competition and in 2005 she was awarded 3rd place in the Dunlavin Poetry Competition and published in the 23rd Dunlavin Festival of Arts Annual. She has been published in the Meath Chronicle, New Poems of Oriel (2006), Boyne Berries Magazine, Crannog Magazine, Revival Poetry Journal, The Sharp Review, Ropes 2010, NUIG's Writers' Society's Writers' Exchange Chapbook, Riposte, Wordlegs, The Linnet's Wings, The Stony Thursday Book 2011 & 2013, thefirstcut, Shot Glass Journal, Census 3, Silver Blade Magazine, HeadSpace, Outburst, The Galway Review, The Artistic Atlas of Galway, Shamrock Haiku Journal, Carillon, The Poetry Porch, Three Drops from a Cauldron, The Ofi Press, Headstuff, Abridged, Amaryllis, The Pickled Body, A New Ulster, Tales from the Forest, The Honest Ulsterman, Lagan Online, An Anthology of Reactions, The Rose Magazine, Orbis and The Ogham Stone 2017. In 2008 she was a finalist in the Meath County Library Eist Poetry Competition. In 2009 she had a poem commended in the Francis Ledwidge International Poetry Award. In 2010 she had a poem highly commended in the Windows Publications Cavan Crystal Poetry Award. In 2011 she had a story selected for The Lonely Voice: Short Story Introductions in The Irish Writers' Centre. In June 2012 she published her poetry chapbook Drawn to the Light. She was a featured reader at O'Bheal in Cork in March 2013. She was highly commended for poetry in The Jonathan Swift Creative Writing Awards in October 2013 and long-listed in the WOW fiction Awards 2014. She was longlisted for poetry in The Anthony Cronin International Poetry Prize 2017, The Fish Poetry Prize 2017 and The Over the Edge New Writer of the Year Competition 2017 and shortlisted in The Rush Poetry Competition 2017, The Dermot Healy Poetry Award 2017 and The Red Line Book Festival Poetry Competition 2017.