The Last Wednesday Series and Open Mike

It was interesting to attend another open mic.  This event took place in Cassidy's on Westmoreland Street and it was divided into four sections with four readers in each section.  The night is run by the Seven Towers Agency.  Oran Ryan and Ross Hattaway who had been featured readers at the Boyne Readings held fort on home turf.  Michael Farry was the featured reader and he read from his collection that won joint third in the Patrick Kavanagh Award 09. 

It was an entertaining night with some hip-hop rap style offerings and one lady sang verses of Ain't no sunshine when she's gone... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXVf2hAWRQM

There were a lot of talented writers to be heard certainly.  I was quite taken with the drapes on the open mic stage.  They were gothic and rich.  Pictured above are Michael Farry and myself.  The Seven Towers Agency seems to be co-ordinated by Sarah Lundberg and they organise events in Chapters on Parnell Street too! Well done to them.

ROPES Launched

Julian Gough

I'm really happy to be in ROPES this year and the journal is a lovely production.  Proceeds from ROPES are donated to Cystic Fibrosis Ireland.  It was launched by Julian Gough.  Julian Gough's novel Jude: Level 1 was shortlisted for the 2008 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction.  In April 2007, Julian won the biggest prize in the world for a single short story, the BBC National Short Story Award, for "The Orphan and the Mob".  He studied Philosophy and English at N.U.I.G. and while a student there formed a band called Toasted Heretic.

Julian spoke about the need for writers to challenge society and break the mould.  He thought it is a very exciting time to be a young writer now as we emerge from the chaos left by the Celtic Tiger and try to understand the recent past.

There are some well known names included in the journal inlcuding Rita Ann Higgins, Nuala Ni Choncuir, Martin Dyar and Kevin Higgins.  Martin Dyar has won the Strokestown Poetry Prize, the Raftery Award and the Patrick Kavanagh Award, wow!  Ceara Conway and Ken Bruen read on the night alongside Dyar, Rita Ann Higgins and Kevin Higgins. 

Martin Dyar

Congratulations to the students of the MA in Literature and Publishing and to Dr. Daniel Carey and  Dr. Julia Carlson of the English Department, N.U.I. Galway.

ROPES 18 and the 2010 Cuirt Festival of Literature

On Thursday evening I hope to attend the launch of ROPES 2010, Issue 18 in the Skeffington Arms, Eyre Square, Galway.  I have a piece of flash fiction in it about a weekend I spent in Gleann Colm Cille last year.

The Cuirt International Festival of Literature is celebrating its 25th year and is running from the 20th to the 25th of April.  The writers of the Gallery Press are reading  at 2.30 on Saturday in the Town Hall Theatre.  The Gallery Press is itself turning 40 this year.  And I have just seen that on Sunday there will be a performance about The Wilder Wisdom of Auld Ones...Stories, Legends and Poetry inspired by the Cailleach in the Nun's Island Theatre.  This is very interesting!  Jennifer Johnston and Michael Longley are appearing at the festival too.  I admire them both as writers and I met Johnston once and she signed a copy of The Invisible Worm for me.  On the inside of this book Blake's poem is quoted:

O Rose, thou art sick!

The Invisible worm,

That flies in the night,

In the howling storm,



Has found out thy bed

Of Crimson joy;

And his dark secret love

Does thy life destroy.

The full programme of events can be found on http://www.cuirt.ie/

Boyne Readings and Open Mic April - Kate Dempsey

Kate Dempsey

It was an enjoyable night when Kate Demspey came to town and a cheerful atmosphere filled the room.  I particulary enjoyed her poem Mash:

I judged the mashed potato contest
giving marks for presentation, flavour, consistency
The winner, a dimpled woman of Amish appearance.
What's your secret? I asked before I woke.
It's about love, she said, all about love.

This poem appears in the Poetry Divas 1 pamphlet.

Kate read  for about 40 minutes and kept us all entertained and listening.  It was great to meet her and partake in some chat afterwards.  You can see in the photos the light in the window behind the readers fading.  I can't think of a better way to spend an evening.

Michael Farry

Open Mic readers on the night included members of the Meath Writers Circle, Boyne Writers Group and others.  I had worked on a poem myself called St. Mary's comprising of two sonnets especially for the event.

Blogs containing more about the reading include: 

http://michaelfarry.blogspot.com/

http://thetarapoetryblog.blogspot.com/

http://emergingwriter.blogspot.com/

Emerging Writer for Boyne Readings

What is it that she is emerging from? Some kind of primeval literary goo? I could see this heading towards the realm of Jung and the collective unconscious but I don't want to confuse myself any further tonight!

Tomorrow night will see Kate Demspsey as the featured reader at the Boyne Readings and Open Mic.  I know little about Kate Demspey's work so it will be an education to hear her read.  She writes wonderful, informative blogs that are on the pulse of the literary scene.  She has been published in a wide variety of magazines and she has won many awards. 

The reading takes place at 8 o'clock in the Village Hall, Knightsbridge Village, Longwood Road, Trim, Co.  Meath.  Admission is 5euro.  The reading by Kate will be followed by an open mic session.  All are welcome.  For more info see http://michaelfarry.blogspot.com/

Elves, Gnomes and Other Little People

When I was in Chapters on Parnell Street earlier today I came across several wonderful books, one of which is Elves, Gnomes and other Little People Coloring Book by John O'Brien.  There are pictures of elves, an imp, Rumpelstiltskin, goblins, Tom Thumb, Thumbelina, brownies, trolls, leprechauns, pixies, gnomes and water sprites.  Oberon the dwarf king from A Midsummer Night's Dream, his wife Titania, queen of the faeries, and Puck a.k.a. Robin Goodfellow also feature.

Each picture is accompanied by description.  The entry for pixies especially made me chuckle:

"Pixies liked to guide travellers at night.  Here they are helping a man to get home safely over a very dangerous bridge.  Long ago, when a man got drunk and came home late, and his wife complained, he would say that the pixies led him astray and made him get lost."

This puts in my mind Christina Rossetti's poem Goblin Market which is a curious poem and Rossetti is herself a curious figure.  She also wrote a book of nursey rhymes called Sing-Song.  I love this rhyme of hers:

The horses of the sea

Rear a foaming crest,
But the horses of the land
Serve us the best.

The horses of the land
Munch corn and clover,
While the foaming sea-horses
Toss and turn over.

Holy Wells

I've been meaning for some time to delve a little deeper into the area of Holy Wells which I do not know much about but curiosity attracts me to them.  Some time ago I met a woman from Dundalk, Brid McDonnell, who had a great interest and seeming knowledge of folklore and the local history of that area of Louth.  She writes about her faith in Jesus and Heaven in her poem Little Flower which can be found in New Poems of Oriel but she is just as comfortable writing about the old pagan gods and goddesses. In Boyne Berries 5 she has a poem called An Cailleach (the cailleach may well have been the antithesis of the pagan Brigid).  I suppose then that the Holy Wells are a bit like Brid's poetry, a marriage between Pagan Ireland and Christian Ireland.

In pre-christian Ireland the holy wells were sacred places and they served as places of natural religion.  These wells are usually found in quiet parts of the countryside near trees and many believe that the wells cure specific ailments.  Some people tie ribbons or handkerchiefs to the trees or branches near the wells as memorials of their visits.  The Hill of Tara here in Meath is believed to have seven holy wells but some are not visible and some destroyed.  The Well of the White Cow and St. Patrick's Well are two of them.

I have visited the well of St. Feichin in Fore, Co. Westmeath which is a stunning place.  At the weekend however I went to see St. Brigid's Shrine in Faughart outside Dundalk.

There is a great view of Dundalk from here and I did of course bend down to touch the waters of the stream.  My friend told me a story about St. Brigit and how she plucked her eye out to avoid marriage to have it restored by God again when she was able to follow her calling to be a nun.  The pagan Brigid was a Celtic Goddess who was worshipped throughout Europe.  She is a triple goddess; poetess and muse, goddess of inspiration, learning, poetry, divination, witchcraft, occult knowledge. A second aspect of Brigid was as goddess of smithcraft, carrying a famous cauldron for this purpose. The third aspect of Brigid was that of healer, goddess of healing and medicine. These three aspects were united through the symbol of fire.  I was excited this year to read about Imbolc and its coinciding with the feast of St. Brigid.  I had not been able to sleep the night of the last day of January and the first day of February and found myself getting up to work on my poetry - was this a coincidence - I'm curious!

Another poet who writes about the holy wells is Susan Connolly and she has a poem called Well Fever.  Connolly also has a poem about St. Brigid called Brigit.

I am sure that there is a lot more that I have to learn about these wells and all that they encompass.