Whats happening on Poetry Day Ireland?
“Poetry should surprise by a fine excess, and not by singularity; It should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance.” John Keats
Poetry Day Ireland takes place on April 26th and the theme of this year’s events is “Poetry Surprises!” With events taking place across the country and poems being displayed on Dublin Bus and DART services, in Applegreen stations and the rooms of some of Ireland’s best hotels, you are sure to find something which surprises you. Here at HeadStuff we will be celebrating by announcing details of our Poetry Competition on Thursday 26th. So be sure to keep an eye out.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Brochures with the day’s events can be found in bookshops and libraries around the island and a full list of events is available here (http://www.poetryireland.ie/poetry-day/) with details on all events mentioned here.[/perfectpullquote]
In Connaught, Mid-West radio will have poets Ger Reidy and Finn Costelloe/UPBEAT on the Tommy Marren show from 9.30am, while poems will spring up around Portumna throughout the day. Imtiaz Dharker and Pascale Petit will read at 1pm in the Town Hall Theatre, Galways. Dharker won the Queen’s Medal for Poetry in 2014 while Petit’s latest collection, Mama Amazonica, was a Poetry Book Society Choice so this is one not to be missed.
Anticipation runs high as the Yeats Society appoints its new Poet in Residence at 12pm in the Yeats Building, Sligo followed later that evening by an event with poet Rita Ann Higgins, who will read her favourite Yeats and Heaney poems. Roscommon Country Library will award the winners of its Poetry Day competition at 5.30pm and Ballina Arts Centre presents an evening of music and poetry with Terry McDonagh from 8pm.
The capital comes alive with poetry as tours, screenings, and workshops take place around Dublin on 26th. Fired! present A Celebration of Irish Women Poets at the Writers Museum introduced by Prof. Lucy Collins (2.30pm). Poets Meave O’Sullivan and Anne Tannam will read in Cabra Library at 6.30pm with the audience invited to share a poem too. For those bilingual readers, there is much to discover; Irish and English poems will be read at DCU’s open mic on St. Patrick’s Campus library, Drumcondra; the Instituto Cervantes presents poetry in Galician, Spanish and English; the Goethe-Institut Irland hosts a unique event creating chains of poems with just eleven words.
Elsewhere in Leinster, local poets come out in force as Peggie Gallagher and others read in Blessington Library at 7pm and Wexford-based poets present their work with events in Enniscorthy Library and Gorey Library. The Mermaid Arts centre in Bray hosts a salon-style reading with poet Nell Regan followed by an open mic. If you’re feeling poetically peckish, Castlecomer Library in Kilkenny will host a Poetry Reading with Afternoon Tea at 3.30pm.
Across Munster, schools, libraries and businesses will celebrate poetry with lively events, with Limerick Writers’ Centre extending the celebrations across the while month of April. In Waterford, Clodagh Beresford, who won the Listowel Writers’ Week Poem of the Year in 2017, will read in St. Catherine’s Hall at 8pm. Actor Cathy Belton gives voice to T.S. Eliot’s seminal poem “The Waste Land” with a reading in the Lewis Gluckman Gallery, UCC at 1pm. Outside the city, Killeagh, Co. Cork brings poetry to one of the oldest pubs in Ireland with an open mic event in the Old Thatch Pub from 8pm. At 9.30am, doctoral student Paul McNamara brings artists and academics together at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, in a discussion on poetry and performance.
Events in Ulster include open mics and plenty of opportunity for you to get involved. At The Shepherds Rest Pub, tours will conclude with readings of Seamus Heaney poems and a tasting of sloe gin. The Waterside Theatre in Derry presents Strata run by Women Aloud NI exploring women’s writing across the ages throughout the day. The Central Library in Derry City hosts a reading by Julieann Campbell and Lynne Edgar followed by a Q&A at 7pm. At the Seamus Heaney HomePlace Young Northern Irish poets are celebrated at 7.30pm, highlighting contemporary talents.
If you’re lucky enough to be around Miami, three Irish poets, Tara Bergin, Julie Morrissy and Paul Perry, will be reading at the Betsy Hotel on Friday 27th. Well… we can live in hope.
Be sure to check out the full list of events, let us know what you’re attending, and allow yourself to be surprised by poetry this Poetry Day.
Submissions are open for all HeadStuff poetry categories, including Poem of The Week (Every Friday), Unbound (longer sequence of poems from a single poet), and New Voices (submissions from poets under the age of 30.) We accept both written, audio and video recorded poems as long as the quality of the audio and video is of a high standard.
Please see our Submissions page for more information.
Photo by Thought Catalog
