Tag Archives: Poetry Ireland.

THREE Clare poets have been named as recipients of Poetry Town Bursaries. Sixmilebridge based Carrie Barrett O’Donnell is based in Sixmilebridge, Eileen O’Malley who lives between Miltown Malbay and Spanish Point and Marianne Slevin living in Doolin are among the 24 awardees of the bursary scheme. Poetry Ireland put a call out during October for submissions from poets all over the island of Ireland, with three categories (New Poets, Experienced and Spoken Word). Each bursary was worth €300-500, depending on the level of support requested by the applicant.   The bursaries are designed to be used by the awardees for opportunities to develop their poetry – some examples given during the submission process were: taking a writing course, attending a writing residency, paying for mentoring or critical assessment, paying a filmmaker to create a film of poetry work, or simply taking time off work to devote to writing.   Niamh O’Donnell, Director of Poetry Ireland, said, “We were overwhelmed with the number of applications for bursaries and …

AS Ennistymon prepares to take part in the nationwide Poetry Town initiative next month, its new Poet Laureate was revealed today. Poetry Ireland, in conjunction with Clare County Council Arts Office, has appointed Grace Wells as the Poet Laureate for the town. An award-winning eco-poet, author, re-wilder, and yoga teacher, Grace says she was looking forward to celebrating the town’s “dynamic sense of place”. She added: “I love living in Ennistymon and am so proud to be invited to be the town’s Laureate. As an eco-poet navigating the griefs of environmental collapse, it’s so helpful to belong to a community where people are genuinely working to halt Ireland’s biodiversity loss, and actively creating initiatives to help the country become carbon-neutral. “Poetry can support these transitions. Ennistymon already has rich literary roots, it’s both the birthplace of Brian Merriman, and the home of Salmon Press, so I’m hoping to fuse some of these creative energies together, and really celebrate the town’s …

ONE THOUSAND homes in East Clare received a Poetry Day surprise on Thursday (April 29), courtesy of Scariff Post Office and University of Limerick (UL) Arts Officer, Patricia Moriarty. Across the county boundary, a further 1,000 homes will have what Patricia described as “a side serving of poetry,” with their deliveries from meals on wheels services in Limerick. “Every year, Poetry Ireland produces Pocket Poems, where poets create work that’s printed on postcards,” Patricia explained. “Last year, because of the pandemic, they didn’t do the print run, but I had the mad idea during lockdown to ask Scariff Post Office to deliver 500 postcards to those cocooning if I could get 500 printed. “I left the destination of the cards up to the delivery staff, because they know the people on their route. One of the poems was about a woman breast-feeding at night and the postman delivered it to a young mother locally. “I got a lovely text from …

SCION Flanagan from Mary Immaculate Secondary School, Lisdoonvarna is the winner of the intermediate category in the annual Poetry Aloud competition, organised by the National Library of Ireland and Poetry Ireland. Poetry Aloud, an annual poetry speaking competition for post-primary school students across the island of Ireland, was launched in 2006. Since then, it has grown enormously from just a few hundred entries to over 1,700 this year alone. The Poetry Aloud competition comprises three stages: the regionals; the semi-finals; and the final. This year, over 118 schools took part in the competition, including Mary Immaculate Secondary School in Clare, at 18 regional heats in venues across the country. Today’s finalists were then chosen at two semi-finals involving 149 participants. Three other Lisdoonvarna students reached the semi-final stage