Poetry Town

We were delighted to be awarded funding for our Poetry Town proposal under the Arts Council of Ireland’s Open Call initiative. And grateful to receive some additional funding from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

And so began the exciting planning to make poetry the beating heart of community life in 20 Poetry Towns across the island of Ireland over nine days in September!

In partnership with local authority arts offices and with the invaluable help of local town organisers (and Lian Bell and Conall Ó Riain who joined forces with the Poetry Ireland team), close to 200 public events, initiatives and community workshops were organised across the towns. Schools Awards took place in many of the Poetry Towns, ably managed by our Education team and administrator Camille Lynch.

Poet Laureates for each town wrote a specially commissioned poem reflecting the town and its townspeople, which were unveiled at flagship events. From guerrilla poetry in the supermarket, on stilts, street corners and bicycles, to Café Poems and Prescription Poems, and rain poetry coming to life on street pavements, Poetry Town showed that poetry belongs to everybody, wherever they live.

We were heartened with the huge response to the initiative and would love to see a return of Poetry Town in the future, if funding can be secured.

Pictured at the launch of Poetry Town are Kathleen and Michael O’Loughlin with their grandchildren Billy, Aidan and Conor Byrne. Photo: Marc O’Sullivan