Last Wednesday night (12 November), the 2nd Annual All Ireland Live Poetry Championships took place at the White House, with 2 poets competing from each of the four provinces. Munster poet, Dónal Ó Siadhacháin, was the outright winner with a powerful rendition of his poem in celebration of Nelson Mandela. It proved a very entertaining night indeed with a huge range of poetic voices and styles on show.

The competition itself was followed by the usual “Open mic” session at which 15 poets did their stuff. I read Epithalamion in public for the second time - I stress ‘read’ as I still haven’t committed it sufficiently well to memory to do it from memory.

Tomorrow the 18th November All Ireland Poetry Slam Winner 2008 Dónal Ó Siadhacháin will be featured on Newstalk along with Barney Sheehan, MC White House Poetry Revival and Stephen Smith from Dublin who came second at the recent championships held at the White House Pub in Limerick.
They will be on the Sean Moncrieff show between 3-4 on Newstalk 106 - 108 fm, there will be a pod cast if you miss the first airing.

Tomorrow (Saturday 15th November) sees the inaugural Three Legged Stool poets‘ monthly session in Glór, Ennis. Proceedings start at 2.30pm sharp. Members of the Three Legged Stool Poetry group will read some of their recent work. This will be followed by an ‘Open Mic’ session when anybody who wants can read their poetry. Our first guest poet, Fred Johnston, will finish the session off with a reading from his work. We also hope to have some musical interludes. So if you’re in the Ennis area and would like to take time out for a coffee, or drink and listen to some live poetry please come along. The whole session will take a maximum of two hours.

The third poetry evening in the series ‘SOUNDINGS’ takes place this Thursday evening November 13th in Newcastle West Library.

“‘SOUNDINGS’ is an evening of poetry, musings and stories” says Librarian Aileen Dillane. “If you are the type of person who enjoys hearing poetry read or are writing your own poetry, then this series which has commenced under the county’s poet in residence Eileen Sheehan is bound to interest you. We are really pleased to have Mary Kennelly as our guest poet for this SOUNDINGS evening. Many people will be familiar with Mary’s first lovely collection ‘Sunny Spells, Scattered Showers’ and her second collection is due out from Salmon Press in the New Year.”

“The evening also features an ‘open mic’ session”, says Arts Officer Joan Mac Kernan, “and this is open to anyone who would like to read their own work. To date we have been delighted with the uptake and impressed with the number of people who are quietly writing away. And of course reading one’s work aloud to an interested audience whets the creative juices.”

SOUNDINGS, an evening of magic woven around the sound and meaning of words commences at 8.00 pm and all are welcome.

Full details on the poet in residence programme and the SOUNDINGS evenings are available from the County Arts Office at telephone 496498/496300 or  email jmackernan@limerickcoco.ie

The 2nd All Ireland Live Poetry Championships take place this coming Wednesday 12th November at the White House in Limerick. It’s due to start at 9pm.

Samhain sona dhíbh uilig! Happy Hallowe’en to everyone!

It’s a gorgeous sunny day with a not a cloud to be seen in the sky - a rare thing indeed! We had frost last night and that helped. It is cold as it should be this time of year. Here’s hoping for a prolonged spell of this cold crisp DRY sunny weather.

Clare Three-Legged Stool Poets are delighted to announce a new monthly poetry event in conjunction with Glór in Ennis. It will be held on the third Saturday of every month in the Atrium in Glór from 2.30pm to 4.30pm commencing on 15th November 2008. There is no entrance fee.
Each month will see a guest poet read from their work. This will be followed by readings of new poems by members of Clare Three Legged Stool Poets and others who want to introduce their work. The poetry will be interspersed with live music of a classical, traditional or jazz nature performed by local musicians. Please come along to listen or to read - you will be most welcome!
November’s guest poet is Fred Johnston, while December’s guest poet is Frank Golden .

The Three Legged Stool Poets was founded in 2003 to celebrate the poetic work of men and women in Clare, and counts the following poets among its members:

• Brian Mooney
• Arthur Watson
• Rob Hopkins
• Padraig Haugh
• Claire Hughes
• Murdoch Lothian
• John Doorty
• Frank Golden
• Geraldine Hetherton
• Patrick Stack
• Michelle Bradley
• Ilsa Thielan
• Michael Reeves
• Larry O’Bryan
• Noel Mulqueen
• Paul Saalbach

This coming Wednesday 29 October sees English poets Keith Armstrong from Newcastle-upon-Thyne and Guy Hudson from Mansfield as guests at the White House Poetry Revival in Limerick. After the guest poets, the usual ‘open mic’ session will take place. The whole thing starts around 9pm as per usual.

The second poetry evening in the “Soundings” series is being held at Newcastle West library this coming Thursday 30th October at 8.00pm. The featured poet  is Gabriel Fitzmaurice. There is also an ‘open mic’ session at which all who want to are welcome to read.

Full details on the SOUNDINGS evenings are available from the County Arts Office at telephone 061-496498/496300.

I’m delighted to announce that I have been given the first slot in the 2009 Out to Lunch Series of poetry readings. It takes place on Friday 9 January 2009 at 1.15pm at the Writers’ Centre in Parnell Square, Dublin.

I’m very excited about this as it will be my first full reading ever. It will also be the first reading I’ve done outside Munster since the 1980s. I’m really looking forward to reading my new work (and updated older work) for my fellow poet and non-poet friends from the 1980s (Mael Coll Rua, John McNamee, Pat Boran, and Basil McHerb to mention but four). Not only are they not familiar with my recent work - they have not read it at all. Nor have they heard me perform since then.

I’ve been building up to this since I started writing again two and a half years ago. All the open mic sessions at the White House Poetry Revival, as well as the few short readings I did at The Georgian House as part of the Summer Music on the Shannon festival in 2007 and 2008 have been crucial in developing my performance. So in a sense the Out to Lunch reading is a culmination of this and, in a small but important way, constitutes a sort of test as well.

View the slide show of the launch of Revival 9 on Wed 15 October last. I’m slide number 16.