Poetry reading at Listowel Writers Week, Ireland

Poetry reading at Listowel Writers Week, Ireland 02 Jun 2018

It was a joy to be invited to perform at Listowel Writers Week.

Listowel Writers’ Week was founded in 1970 and is recognised as the primary event in Ireland’s literary calendar.

The annual event is located in the North Kerry town of Listowel which is the birthplace of many of Ireland’s most prominent writers past and present including Dr. John B. Keane, Dr. Bryan MacMahon, Professor Brendan Kennelly, George Fitzmaurice, Maurice Walsh and Robert Leslie Boland. This year the festival saw appearances and performances by literary hero's of mine such as Eimear McBride, Edna O'Brien and Fergal Keane.

My poetry was on Saturday at 6pm held at the beautiful St.Johns Theatre and Arts Centre. I read a mix of all three of my collections for around 50 minutes.

It was wonderful to feel the energy back from the audience that were in attendance and answer questions after my reading.

Thank you to the entire wonderful team that make this incredible festival happen. A special thanks goes to war correspondent and all round wonderful man, Fergal Keane, for he recommended me for the festival. Fergal was at Listowel discussing his new book Wounds: A Memoir of War and Love. Fergal reported on The Rwandan Genocide, and that experience formed his book Season Of Blood ( which I thoroughly recommend if you want to truly comprehend how the genocide originated) more recently he interviewed Aung San Suu Kyi on the Rohingya Genocide that she has allowed to happen under her government. I know he is now back in a war zone reporting but it was special to spend that time with Fergal in his home town.