Poetry Ireland in 2021

As another challenging year ends we, the Poetry Ireland team, take time to contemplate our work over the past 365 days and consider what makes us grateful. This Year in Review will give you a snapshot of some of our year’s highlights.

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It Does. (William James, Philosopher & Psychologist) We believe to make a difference requires thought, empathy, and imagination. It takes creativity. All our work: artists’ commissions, residencies, Writers in Schools, publications, professional development for poets and live literature events, require and succeed because of collective and collaborative effort. We are so very thankful to each and every person who participated in and supported our work. Thank you to every musician, technician, arts

worker, community group and audience member. You make our work, our labour, worthwhile.

Each year, we co-plan and co-design our programmes. All our activities and events are about shared values and shared experiences. When we share, we build understanding, trust and community and our community is our antidote to difficulties and hardship. Community is our secret weapon to building collaboration and diversity.

We are very grateful to all of our partners and this year particularly to The Heaney Family, The Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation, IMMA, The Department of Foreign Affairs, U.S. Embassy, Dublin, and to Diversifying Irish Poetry. You make our work far reaching and meaningful. We also thank all of our sponsors, donors and subscribers during 2021, and our Board for their valuable input, their time and their dedication. We would also like to give thanks to our principal funders, the Arts Council/ An Chomhairle Ealaíon and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. We also thank Creative Ireland and every Arts Officer in each county of Ireland. Their partnership and support are what makes our work possible.

Most importantly of all, we give immense gratitude to our poets. It was Claude Monet who said, “to be creative you must be brave”. We give thanks to every poet. Your work, bravery, talent and resilience are the core purposes of our work and are our inspirations.

As we start to plan our coming year, we are full of anticipation and hope, and we look forward to seeing you all in 2022.

Best wishes, Niamh O’Donnell Director, Poetry Ireland