The Year in Review 2022

2022 Year in Review

Poetry Ireland in 2022

In looking back at 2022, we’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who supported Poetry Ireland during last year, both here at our new temporary home at St Patrick’s Campus at Dublin City University and all over Ireland, participating in and organising poetry events and programmes at festivals and venues, for everyone from junior infants to care home residents.

This overview of our year will give you a snapshot of some of the memorable events that took place over the past 12 months. We would also like to take this opportunity to extend our particular thanks to our main funders, the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

As you will see later in the Review, we are progressing our plans with the Irish Heritage

Trust to create a significant cultural hub for the north inner city at our permanent home at 11 Parnell Square, incorporating Poetry Ireland House. We will keep you updated as we progress our plans to refurbish our home on one of Dublin’s finest Georgian Squares.

This was a busy year for Poetry Ireland commencing with the move to DCU and the return of live programming throughout Ireland. The appetite for live events has returned with a bang and we managed to adjust to hybrid models of presentation with considerable success – in particular, in the early part of the year when we presented several events online, including COMMONground, a Transatlantic collaboration with the Poetry Foundation. Another recent highlight was a reading by renowned American poet Jane Hirshfield

and our own Paula Meehan in association with The Hugh Lane Gallery, our neighbour and venue partner in Parnell Square. We continued to support poetry events at Festivals including our Vital Signs event at Dingle Literature Festival.

Vital Signs is our latest anthology, a collection of powerful and courageous responses to the human experience of illness and healing. Our three Poetry Ireland Review Editors in 2022 were Colm Keegan, Gerald Dawe and Nessa O Mahony, each taking a unique approach to the task and producing immensely valuable journals of contemporary poetry and essays. Trumpet, edited by Tapasya Narang once again served to highlight and bring the many new poetry voices to the fore.

We are fortunate to have access to the wonderful services and facilities here on campus at DCU and we would like to acknowledge the support of our DCU colleagues, in particular University President Professor Daire Keogh, Orla Nic Aodha, Executive Librarian, Marcella Bannon, Cultural Arts Officer and Mary Shine Thompson, former Poetry Ireland board member and faculty member here at DCU, St Patrick’s. We have held several events at Belvedere House, on campus including the O Shaughnessy Awards with St Paul University, Minnesota in September to Dermot Bolger, Ailbhe Ni Ghearbhuigh and Gerry Murphy.

We were fortunate too, to have been awarded Arts Council funding to roll out I bhFad I gCein, our five International Residencies for poets in Germany, the UK, and the USA. The Brinkerhoff Foundation has also come on board, alongside DCU, to support our 2nd Poet in Residence Programme which will be advertised in early 2023. We are delighted to launch the second Eavan Boland Emerging Poet Award in 2023 together with Stanford University and TCD. The International Residencies and Eavan Boland Emerging Poet Awards are both supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs, the U.S. Embassy, and the network of Cultural Officers, attached to Irish

Consulates at each of the residency locations. These important residencies offer valuable time to poets to work and to make international connections, developing audiences for their own work and increasing the profile of Irish poetry internationally.

We look forward to 2023 with renewed energy and optimism. We will see you at our live events. We encourage you to delve into the pages of our publications, and to participate in our many community and education initiatives throughout 2023.

Ag guí sláinte agus sonas ort féin agus ar do mhuintir don bhliain úr.

From the Poetry Ireland Team

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIVE LITERATURE 6

PROJECTS AND INITIATIVES 11

POETRY DAY IRELAND 12 PUBLICATIONS 14

RESIDENCIES 16

IRELAND CHAIR OF POETRY 18

EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT 20

POETRY IRELAND CENTRE DEVELOPMENT 25

POETRY IRELAND TEAM 26

In the early part of the year when there was still a great deal of uncertainty around in relation to live events, we presented COMMONground in association with the Irish poet Doireann Ní Ghríofa and award-winning American poet Teri Ellen Cross Davis, moderated by Erin Fornoff. The event, attended by 500 live viewers, probed each poet’s approach and explored the points at which their experiences converged and diverged.

We followed with “To Love this Body”, our first event in the beautiful surrounds of Belvedere House, Dublin City University, St. Patrick’s Campus, Drumcondra, Dublin. A showcase reading by Trudie Gorman, it also featured Rosaleen McDonagh and Hazel Hogan focusing on working-class identity and disability. The event represented the culmination of Trudie Gorman’s New Work award supported by the Arts Council’s Arts and Disability Connect scheme managed by Arts & Disability Ireland.

Introductions

- Céadlinte at ILFD

craft of poetry, while raising the profile of talented, early career poets welcomed poet Anthony Anaxagorou who selected this year’s participants and was joined by Jessica Traynor and Annemarie Ní Churreáin for a series of workshops with these early-career poets. Poetry Ireland presented three evenings of Introductions | Céadlinte Eigse Eireann as part of ILFD in Merrion Square in May 2022.

Poetry Ireland and Doire Press launched three new titles also at Belvedere House: Palm Wine Tapper and The Boy at Jericho by Nithy Kasa, Riptide by Amanda Bell, and Liffey Sequence by David Butler. Nithy Kasa’s collection Palm Wine Tapper and The Boy at Jericho was commis-sioned by Poetry Ireland, with the support of an Arts Council of Ireland Commissions Award and is Nithy Kasa’s debut collection of poetry.

Poetry Ireland’s annual Introductions project which aims to encourage excellence in the

We were delighted to present the inaugural Eavan Boland Emerging Poet Awardees at the U.S Ambassador’s Residence in Phoenix Park on Wednesday 8 June. Poets Emma Tobin and Lauren Green were hosted by U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Claire Cronin for an event chaired by Clíodhna Ní Anluain with readings by both and the award judges Paula Meehan and Jane Hirshfield. Tributes were paid by Eavan Casey, daughter of Eavan Boland, as well as by poet Nessa O’Mahony who later in 2022 edited the Eavan Boland Special edition of Poetry Ireland Review. The award is a partnership between the U.S. Embassy, Poetry Ireland, the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trinity College Dublin, and Stanford University.

IPUT Real Estate, Ireland’s leading property company and supporter of the arts launched Words at Wilton Park on its Living Canvas digital screen sited on the banks of the Grand Canal, Dublin 2. Poetry Ireland contributed significantly to this incredibly rich programme, with film poems featuring prominently. Living Canvas, Europe’s largest outdoor digital art

screen, and only the second of its type in the world, presented the free public programme which included eight stunning films commissioned by the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation and produced by Poetry Ireland. The films feature Dagogo Hart, Nithy Kasa, Ciara Ní É, Dawn Watson, Chiamaka Enyi-Amadi, Padraig Regan, and Stephen Sexton bringing life to new and beloved poems. Combining language, performance, music, and moving image, the films present an immersive experience that invites viewers to reconnect with poetry in a contemporary setting.

Summer was particularly busy. In July, Poetry Ireland partnered with Abbey Theatre on 05Fest for five events curated by Inua Ellams which included a Midnight Run, Film and Poetry events, a RAP party and An Evening with an Immigrant, Inua Ellams autobiographical Edinburgh Fringe First Award-winning play. We supported several festivals, including West Cork Literary Festival where Wayne Miller and Stephen Sexton read from their new collections; the John Hewitt Summer School’s reading by poets Cahal Dallat, Rachael Hegarty and Annemarie Ní Churreáin. We also supported O Bheal, Dingle Literature Festival, Dublin Book Festival and many others. We worked with our neighbour and venue partner The Hugh Lane Gallery to curate Art and the Outdoors in Parnell Square over the weekend of the 31st of July featuring readings by Simon Costello, Eva Griffin, Peter Sirr and Enda Wyley. On August 12th, we co-presented a reading by Theo

MULDOON’S PICNIC

Poet Lauren Green at the U.S. Ambassador’s residence for the inaugural Eavan Boland Award.

Still from Ciara Ní É’s - ‘He’s Just Not That Into You’ displayed on the Living Canvas

Dorgan at Kilkenny Arts Festival followed by a masterclass facilitated by Theo at the festival. Also in August, Poetry Ireland supported a reading by Kerry Hardie, with Paul Muldoon as part of a Turn at Tara.

We were delighted to , once again, produce Muldoon’s Picnic, an omnium-gatherum of poetry, prose and music, hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon joined by house band Rogue Oliphant, a collective of musicians and composers including Chris Harford (Three Colors, Band of Changes), Cait O’Riordan (The Pogues), David Mansfield (Bob Dylan, The Alpha Band), Ray Kubian (Electric Six, Chris Forsyth) and Warren Zanes (Del Fuegos). Each show on the tour was a bespoke mix of artists from the worlds of music and literature and a highly entertaining night out. It played to full houses in Limerick, Letterkenny, Belfast and Dublin.

Poetry Ireland partnered with DLR Arts Office / Poet in Residence Jessica Traynor for a Poetry Weekender on 17th and 18th September which featured events for all the family, including a Gingko Walk, a Celebration of Poetry By the Sea featuring a selection of Poetry Ireland Review poets, the Carbon Project, music by Maija Sofia, Farah Elle, and a special guest appearance by Margaret Atwood.

The O Shaughnessy Award ceremony at Belvedere House, in association with St Thomas University Minnesota, was a live celebration of awards made to Gerry Murphy, Dermot Bolger, and Ailbhe Ni Ghearbhuigh on Thursday 22nd September.

Poetry Ireland and Trócaire celebrated the winners of the Trócaire Poetry Ireland Poetry Competition 2022 at a special awards ceremony on Culture Night, Friday 23 September in the Cregan Library on DCU’s St. Patrick’s Campus.

On October 7th, Poetry Ireland hosted celebrated queer African-American poet Carl Phillips for a first reading and conversation about his new publication Then the War: And Selected Poems 2008-2020 at the Hugh Lane Gallery, chaired by Sean Hewitt.

Author Margaret Atwood

Carl Phillips in conversation with Sean Hewitt

Trocaire Poetry Ireland Competition Winners 2022

November opened with our co-production of a reading with the Centre for Resistance Studies at TCD, as part of their Literature and Resistance series. Poets Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe and Anthony Anaxagorou read from their work and discussed how ideas of resistance inform and emerge from their writing, and how such ideas have also shaped their work beyond poetry, in research, teaching, mentoring, and publishing.

support of a reading by poets Kimberly Campanella, Annemarie Ní Churreáin and Victoria Kennefick.

November continued at a hectic pace with readings by Ukrainian poet Halyna Kruk which we produced in association with Munster Literature Centre and Literature Ireland. We presented American poet Jane Hirshfield on a rare appearance in Dublin. with another legendary poet, our own Paula Meehan.

To mark the publication of The Translations of Seamus Heaney, Poetry Ireland curated the reading of a selection of poems from this landmark volume, in their languages of origin and then in translation by the renowned actress Eleanor Methven, with introductions by broadcaster and writer Niall McMonagle, and music by Zöe Conway and John Mc Intyre. The Translations event was presented in association with Dublin Book Festival. We celebrated the late, great Leland Bardwell at A Single Rose Festival, Sligo through our

Also in November, we supported The Gallery Press to present a series of live events marking the publication of Cover Versions, an exhibition of artworks from 50+ years of The Gallery Press which took place at the RHA.

John Shinnors’ Study for Michael Hartnett as part of The Gallery Press’ Cover Versions

At the recording of the RTÉ Poetry Programme Christmas Adition with (from l-r) Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Caitríona Ní Chléirchn, Liz Kelly, Barry Devlin and Olivia O’Leary.

Our final event of 2022 was a return to our annual collaboration with RTE on their annual Christmas Poetry Programme. The programme was recorded at Belvedere House and features former Ireland Professor of Poetry and Saoi of Aosdána Eiléan Ní Chuille-anáin, Horslips founder member and much-

loved broadcaster Barry Devlin and DCU’s own, poet Caitriona Ní Chleircín. We also heard from DCU’s Lumen Chorale, under the directorship of Dr Roisin Blunnie with musical accompaniment from DCU colleagues. The programme was broadcast on RTE Radio One on Christmas Day.

PROJECTS AND INITIATIVES

BLOOMSDAY & ULYSSES 2.2

To mark a century of James Joyce’s Ulysses, ANU, Landmark Productions and MoLI joined forces to present Ulysses 2.2, a yearlong, odyssey of creative, artistic, and experimental responses to the 18 episodes of Ulysses that chronicle an ordinary day in the life of Leopold Bloom. As part of Ulysses 2.2 in partnership with ANU, Landmark, and MoLI, Poetry Ireland commissioned Molly Twomey, Harry Clifton, and Nidhi Zak / Aira Eipe to create new poems in response to the Cyclops episode of Ulysses. Molly Twomey’s commissioned poem The Citizen’s Wife was subsequently filmed by our future production partners Sofft Productions.

Additionally, on Bloomsday as part of this project, Poetry Ireland presented street poetry in response to the themes of the episode by six poets: Sophie Meehan, John Cummins, Emmet Kirwan, Trudie Gorman, Grace Wilentz, and Meg Mulcahy.

The Citizen’s Wife by Molly Twomey from Ulysses 2.2

https://youtu.be/yphjCBeIWEo

The Citizen’s Wife premiered on Bloomsday. Matthew Thompson has created film poems with Harry Clifton and Nidhi Zak. All three will be shown at events at home and abroad throughout 2023.

JUKEBOX

Poetry as Commemoration continued in 2022 and Poetry Ireland in partnership with UCD Library commissioned ten poets to write a poem, in English or Irish, inspired by documents from the War of Independence and Civil War. Poetry Ireland together with UCD selected several emerging and acclaimed poets to write new poems using archival material. The commissioned poets were Aifric Mac Aodha, Chiamaka Enyi Amadi, Bebe Ashley, Martina Evans, Seán Hewitt, Paul Muldoon, Nithy Kasa, Victoria Kennefick, Padraig Regan, Stephen Sexton.

The Poetry as Commemoration Poetry Jukebox was located in St. Stephen’s Green during the summer and contained recordings of 20 poems relating to the struggle for independence. Members of the public could listen to the poems at the press of a button. The Jukebox is currently on tour all over Ireland with a permanent jukebox installed outside the Crescent Arts Centre in Belfast. The Poetry as Commemoration Poetry Jukebox is funded by The Arts Council Northern Ireland and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaelteacht, Sport and Media.

Poetry Ireland’s Elizabeth Mohen at the launch of the Poetry Jukebox in St Stephen’s Green, Dublin POETRY

POETRY DAY IRELAND

Poetry Day Ireland 2022 took place on Thursday 28 April. This year, for the first time since the pandemic both in-person and online events were encouraged. The very popular theme of this year’s Poetry Day was ‘Written in the Stars’. The theme acknowledged the uncertainty of the current moment, as we begin to come out of a two-year pandemic, and the desire to find certainties and answers in unexpected places.

Our Pocket Poems were a tremendous success also and this year we ventured into the world of Fortune Cookies, each containing one of five lines of poetry by Eavan Boland, Wong May translating Meng Jiao, Seamus Heaney, Audrey Molloy, and Sinéad Morrissey. The for-

tune cookies were distributed amongst twelve restaurants in Dublin, Belfast, Derry, Galway, Waterford, Cork, Limerick, and Laois and presented to restaurant patrons on the week of Poetry Day Ireland. We also produced four videos of well-known personalities reading their chosen poem to camera: Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh read, ‘Ceist na Teangan’by Nua-la Ní Dhomhnaill; Chris Hadfield read, ‘High Flight’by John Gillespie McGee; JyellowL read, ‘Love Cycle’by Chinua Achebe; Alison Oliver read ‘Time Passing’ by Clare Dwyer Hogg. Each video was captioned in line with our Diversity & Inclusion strategy, to facilitate greater accessibility to videos for the deaf and hard of hearing community.

Poet John Cummins at the Bloomsday Street Poetry Event

Three-year-old Lana Cardiff from Rush, Co. Dublin is photographed enjoying Pocket Poems

Sophie Patterson (12) from Balbriggan, Co. Dublin photographed enjoying Pocket Poems on Poetry Day 2022

PUBLICATIONS

POETRY IRELAND REVIEW

Poetry Ireland Review is our highly regarded journal of poetry. Published three times a year, the Review includes the work of both emerging and established Irish and international poets, essayists, critics, and visual artists. In 2022 we invited three guest editors to work with us on Poetry Ireland Review: Colm Kee-

gan, Gerald Dawe, and Nessa O’Mahony. Nessa O Mahony’s edition is a celebration of the late Eavan Boland.

Aifric Mac Aodha is our Irish language editor. Poetry Ireland Review’s editorship rotates regularly, and previous editors have included Colette Bryce, Vona Groarke, John F Deane, Caitríona O Reilly, Paul Muldoon, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin and Peter Sirr.

TRUMPET

Trumpet offers a unique platform to creatives in Ireland, challenging and often provocative, Trumpet’s revolving guest editorship ensures a new and exciting vision for each issue and ensures a greater diversity of voices and experiences can be found within its pages. In 2022 Tapasya Narang was appointed guest editor of Trumpet #11. Trumpet #11 will be themed around the idea of ephemera. Commenting on her approach, Tapasya said “The thematic focus of the issue is on ephemera and

ephemerality. It will promote those literary works that have remained in the peripheries of mainstream publishing infrastructure in Ireland and elsewhere. It will look at Ireland’s historical and contemporary underground publishing trends and explore why individual poets and artists, as well as creative communities, might remain outside of the mainstream “spotlight” by their own design. ”

Our Introductions 2022 publication, Sparks of the Everyday was launched in September. This anthology features the very best of Ireland’s emerging poets for 2022, as chosen by Anthony Anaxagorou, award-winning poet, essayist, publisher, and poetry educator, along with renowned Irish-language poet Aifric Mac Aodha. Sparks of the Everyday features work by Róisín Leggett Bohan, Meg Mulcahy, Pádraig Ó Cuinneagáin, Helen Fallon, Karson Lafferty, Caitríona Lane, K.S. Moore, Charles Lang, Art Ó Súilleabháin, Patrick Hopkins, Amy Abdullah Barry, Brian Ó Tiomáin, Phil Kingston, Jess McKinney, and HK Ní Shioradáin.

Also in 2022, Poetry Ireland commissioned four poems for inclusion in Poems for When You Can’t Find the Words edited by Mary Shine Thompson in association with the Irish Hospice Foundation. Poetry Ireland selected and commissioned poets from amongst the growing community of new poets on the island of Ireland and new poems featuring in the anthology include ‘Home of Worship’ by Abby Oliveira, ‘Mother Moon’, by Eriko Tsugawa-Madden, ‘Summer in Killybegs’, by Nandi Jola and ‘What the Hands Know’, by Supriya Kaur Dhaliwal.

VITAL SIGNS

Our new anthology, Vital Signs Poems of Illness and Healing, edited by Martin Dyar, was launched in October. With a foreword by An t-Uachtaráin Michael D. Higgins, Vital Signs is a collection of powerful and courageous responses to the human experience of illness and healing. This inspiring selection includes poems by Leland Bardwell, Eavan Boland, Christy Brown, Raymond Carver, Imti-az Dharker, Rita Dove, Vona Groarke, Seamus Heaney, Miroslav Holub , Nithy Kasa, Patrick Kavanagh, Paula Meehan, Paul Muldoon, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Doireann Ní Ghríofa, Bernard O’Donoghue, Diane Seuss, Colm Tóibín, and many more. Poetry Ireland has presented Vital Signs events including readings at Dingle Literary Festival chaired by GP Dr Peadar O Fionnain and a Poetry SOS session with poet Enda Wyley prescribing poems at the RCPI on Kildare St event at First Fortnight Festival 2023.

In December 2002, Vital Signs headed to Mayo with the support of Creative Ireland and Festival In a Van for the Vital Signs Christmas Sessions, a new initiative that combines the poetry and music of Martin Dyar, Terry McDonagh, Stephen Doherty & David Doocey; Lorna Shaughnessy, Enda Scahill, Mick Conneely,Seán Lysaght, Emer Mayock, Alice Kinsella and Donal Siggins.

RESIDENCIES

I bhFad I gCein

Poetry Ireland launched I bhFad i gCéin- Far Afield, funded by the Arts Council, will see poets take up a new series of international residencies in five cities across the globe. Each will engage in a two-to-three-week residency in New York, Berlin, Edinburgh, Manchester and Montana, this ambitious programme will offer Irish poets the opportunity to immerse them-

selves, present their work and widen their network at each of these locations.

The Residencies will be hosted by Cave Canem in New York, poesiefestival in Berlin, Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh, Quarantine in Manchester and Tippet Rise Art Center in Montana. Each residency is specifically chosen to allow poets to connect with each location and each has been crafted to reflect the growing and diverse community of poets living and working in Ireland.

The Residencies are funded by the Arts Council’s International Residency Scheme. Each successful applicant’s travel, accommodation costs will be covered by the programme in addition to a bursary which will enable the poet to take full advantage of these unique opportunities. The Department of Foreign Affairs will also support the programme and work closely with Poetry Ireland and successful applicants to ensure that a support network is in place at each of the five residency locations.

Upon completion of the programme, all participants will be invited to take part in a gathering to reflect upon their creative experiences during the residencies.

Poetry Ireland is committed to offering development opportunities to poets at all stages

of their careers. In 2022, we were particularly fortunate to work with a range of partners in the delivery of residencies:

• Poetry Ireland partnered with Tyrone Guthrie Centre and The National Writer’s House in Varuna, Australia to offer a month-long residency to a mid-career writer. Catherine Phil McCarthy was selected as the recipient

• The Eavan Boland Prize recipients Emma Tobin and Lauren Green have completed their mentorships with torrin a. greathouse and Mary Szibist as part of the prize

• Poetry Ireland, in association with the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, supported the Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill Bursary managed by poet Keith Payne and awarded the bursary to Irish poet Grace Wells, who was resident at the Residencia Literaria 1863 in A Coruña, Galicia for the month of September. The Galician poet and translator Jesús Castro Yáñez, a multidisciplinary poet and performer, was also resident at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Annaghmakerrig for the month of September

LETTING POETRY IN: POET IN RESIDENCE AT POETRY IRELAND 2019-2022

Poetry Ireland’s inaugural poet in residence, Catherine Ann Cullen completed her remarkably successful project in 2022. She was an exceptional champion of participation and inclusion throughout her residency and was not daunted by periods of lockdown and isolation. The key driver in her residency was to form and secure creative relationships with local groups and connect with people who are often excluded from the arts. The role involved extensive work with several diverse communities within the north inner-city including the SAOL project for women and the Pathways Centre for former

prisoners, as well as schools, libraries, youth, and many adult groups.

In October, Business to Arts shortlisted Poetry Ireland and the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation in two categories

• Best Use of Creativity in the Community, supported by Irish Life category, for

•

We were delighted to share the award for Best Use of Creativity in the Community with our friends and partners at the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation.

Catherine Ann Cullen, Poet in Residence

Best Philanthropic Support to the Arts, supported by the Arts Council category, for Catherine Ann Cullen, Poet in Residence

Catherine Ann Cullen, Tony Lawless, Minister Catherine Martin and Louise O’Reilly at the Business to Arts Awards

IRELAND CHAIR OF POETRY

Poetry Ireland is the administrative home of the Ireland Chair of Poetry Project.

Now in its fourth year, Poetry Ireland under the current Ireland Chair of Poetry, Professor Frank Ormsby presented the IRELAND CHAIR OF POETRY Student Awards in 2022 recognising excellence in the work of students studying creative writing or poetry at master’s level in University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, and Queens University Belfast. Six awards were made to students from the three participating universities, each award valued at €1,000, providing resource, recognition, and encouragement to poets as they begin their life in writing.

The recipients of the Ireland Chair of Poetry Student Awards were:

• Eoghan Totten (QUB)

• Elizabeth Oxley (TCD)

• Kate Lawlor (UCD)

• Viviana Fiorentino (QUB)

• Judy O’Kane (QUB)

• Noah Racey (TCD)

We also facilitated the announcement by The Ireland Chair of Poetry Trust of Jane Clarke as the recipient of the 2022 Ireland Chair of Poetry Travel Award. Jane received an award of £2,000 to facilitate her journey to the Lake District where she undertook a collaborative writing project with sheep farmer and author James Rebanks on his fell farm in the Lake District, Cumbria.

Jessica McKinney was the recipient of the 2022 Ireland Chair of Poetry bursary. Jessica was nominated by Ireland Professor of Poetry Frank Ormsby, and the nomination was unanimously confirmed by the trustees of the Ireland Chair of Poetry Trust. The ICOP bursary is awarded annually to a poet of promise and enables the recipient to reside for four weeks at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Annaghmakerrig, Co. Monaghan. Jessica is the second

poet to be nominated by Professor Ormsby to receive the award.

“Poetry of the Troubles Revisited” online lecture launch took place in front of a small, socially distanced audience, inside the Saloon of the Provost’s House, at Trinity College Dublin. The recorded lecture can be enjoyed via the Trinity College youtube site here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT7zt0PZF00&t=480s

IRELAND PROFESSOR OF POETRY

Professor Paul Muldoon was announced as the new Ireland Professor of Poetry at a reception hosted by President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, in Áras an Uachtaráin.

Professor Paul Muldoon will be the ninth Ireland Professor of Poetry, taking over from the current holder, Frank Ormsby. Professor Muldoon said of his appointment: “To be a poet at all is to be a professor of poetry. In this case, it is especially gratifying to have the opportunity to formalize that professing, that “declaring openly,” of how poetry has been the central spiritual practice of my life. In the course of the next three years I hope to focus less on the writing of poetry than the reading of it. At Queen’s University, Belfast,

Ireland Professor of Poetry Paul Muldoon with former Ireland Professor of Poetry & Saoi in Aosdana Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin

for example, I will be leading discussions on “How To Read a Poem.” The lectures I will be giving as Ireland Professor of Poetry will reflect all these interests, plus a few more. After 35 years of

teaching in the US, I am looking forward to connecting more immediately with, and contributing to, the cultural life of Ireland.”  The position will run until November 2025.

Prof. Paul Muldoon, Ireland Professor of Poetry with President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins on the announcement of his appointment.

EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT

Poetry Ireland’s education programme is founded on principles of access, excellence, partnership, collaboration & communication.

Poetry Ireland’s Education and Development Programme – which includes the Writers in Schools scheme - offers children and young people the chance to work with living artists. Through these encounters children and young people access an ‘artist’s’ view of the world; they develop their own aesthetic learning thus enhancing their ability to think creatively and to take intellectual risks; they broaden their personal - and the school community’s - understanding of, and participation in, the arts and cultural life of their communities.

Poetry Ireland’s Education Team have developed an extensive network of schools and teacher contacts across the entire island, as well as working with compatible and focused organisations such as CBI, local authority Arts Offices, the National Cultural Institutions, and other cultural providers.

Alongside this, the Education Team works with a dedicated writers who are arts in education practitioners of all the major genres in both English and Irish. Poetry Ireland has developed a dedicated Mentoring Scheme and continue to provide supports for writers, including the recent Capacity Building Workshops which are run in partnership with CBI.

2022 proved to be a busy year with visits resuming and live interaction to the fore:

In ROI 135 visits too place to 11500 children and young people all over Ireland. 25% of participating schools were DEIS schools

Examples:

• Poet Colm Keegan in Presentation Secondary Waterford

• YA writer Helena Close in Borrisokane Community College

• Poet Denise Blake

in St Mary’s NS, Malinhead

• YA writer Kevin McDermott in Presentation, Loughboy, Co Kilkenny

• Poet Terry McDonagh in Westport Educate Together

• Children’s writer Alan Nolan in St Patrick’s NS, Oram, Co Monaghan

Poetry Ireland also manages the Writers in Schools programme in Northern Ireland, delivered to 2500 children and young people in 2022 including:

• Storyteller Liz Weir at Carrickmannon PS, Co Tyrone, which was attended by the NI Minister for Education, Michelle McIlveen

• Storyteller Pat Ryan in Gortin PS, Omagh, Co Tyrone

• Sheena Wilkinson St Patrick’s PS, Magherafelt, Co Derry

Poetry Ireland arranges the WIS Northern Ireland Residency programme which in 2022 included poet Maria McManus and visual artist Catherine Davison in Breda College Belfast, an integrated post-primary school. Other residencies included Sheena Wilkinson working with a group of young men in Hydebank Wood College and Pauline Burgess at Belfast Hospital School with a group of young people referred by CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service) with diagnoses ranging from ASD to extreme dysfunctional anxiety.

We also run the Our Place Project Residencies NI (Reconciliation Fund Dept of Foreign Affairs) offering children and young people in primary and post-primary schools across Northern Ireland the opportunity to engage in poetry and story-writing workshops, which explore themes of place and space, and growing up in Northern Ireland today. The 2022 project saw writers Sheena Wilkinson, Deirdre Cartmill, Pat Ryan, and Frank Galligan working with children from St Teresa’s PS Belfast, Upper Ballyboley PS Ballyclare, Glengormley High School, John Paul

artist. The new arrivals are Luke Morgan; poet David McLoughlin, YA fiction Sheila Forsey, storyteller Masako Carey, poet Ciara Ní É; children’s writer and illustrator Mary Murphy; storyteller Raquel McKee and YA writer Shirley McMillan. The mentoring programme also allowed us to offer workshops to 10 schools across the island North and South, reaching approx. 1000 children and young people during 40 hours of workshops

A new Poetry Exchange too place with the Scottish Poetry Library which enabled teacher Madge McGonagle from Trinity Comprehensive Ballymun to accompany three students to Edinburgh for a series of workshops and performances delivered by Dr Samuel Tongue, Project Co-ordinator at the Scottish Poetry Library. The Project was originally meant to take place in 2020 but was postponed due to COVID.

II PS Belfast, Grange PS, St Mary’s PS Enniskillen, Fane Street PS Belfast, Star of the Sea PS Belfast, and Holy Family PS Belfast. 120 participants attended a finale event in the Duncairn Arts Centre Belfast

Five Forás na Gaeilge residencies and mini residencies took place in schools Gaeltacht areas and gaelscoileanna/ gaelcholáistí across the island of Ireland. Writers who worked with us included Jackie MacDonncha, Richie Conroy and Darach Mac an Iomaire.

Mentoring New writers: Nine writers have completed the WIS mentoring programme and were added to our online directory of writers by the end of 2022. At present we have 9 new writers on the Writers in Schools directory including 2 Irish language, 2 Northern Irish, 1 from an Afro-Caribbean background and a Japanese

Back row: Laurence Simms: Joint Secretary to the British-Irish Intergovernmental Secretariat in Belfast (Department of Foreign Affairs), Len Graham: Singer/ storyteller, Pat Ryan: storyteller, Anna Bonner: Development Officer Writers in Schools NI, Liz Kelly: Director Poetry Ireland, Frank Galligan: poet and broadcaster. Front row: John Thomas Williams from Holy Family PS Belfast, Katie Critchley from Upper Ballyboley PS Ballyclare, Caoimhe Donahoe from St Mary’s PS Teemore Co Fermanagh, Shane Cambpell from Star of the Sea PS Belfast

in June 2022.

Former President of Ireland and Adjunct Professor for Climate Justice at Trinity College Dublin, Mary Robinson, joined us for Poemathon and penned the opening line of the poem which was “growing up we did not know; now we need to mend” . The line captured the imaginations of several participants and the resulting poem was unveiled on 28 April 2022 as part of Poetry Day Ireland. The collaborative poem featured 183 contributors from across the island of Ireland and was organised by Poetry Ireland in association with the Global Brain Health Institute (Trinity College Dublin) and Creative Brain Week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ztUqvIb7uo

IRISH AID’S WORLDWISE GLOBAL SCHOOLS PROGRAMME 2021/22

Poetry Ireland collaborates with several partners to deliver global citizenship programmes in primary and post-primary schools, helping students explore global issues through a variety of creative writing projects. In the past academic year students in eleven post-primary schools throughout Ireland explored global

issues in a special development education project co-ordinated by Poetry Ireland Writers in Schools and funded by Irish Aid’s WorldWise Global Schools.

The programme funded writers to work with schools with residencies/workshops during which time they delivered creative writing workshops. The writers involved in this year’s Irish Aid’s WorldWise Global Schools Programme were Caroline Busher, Ritchie Conroy, Catherine Ann Cullen, Martina Murphy, Luke Morgan, Tina Pisco, and Mark Roper. Residencies/workshops took place in Carlow, Clare, Cork, Dublin, Louth, Kilkenny, and Wexford.

POETRY ALOUD

Poetry Aloud is the annual poetry speaking competition open to all students attending second level schools on the island of Ireland. Established in 2007, Poetry Aloud is run by the National Library of Ireland and Poetry Ireland and supported by University College Cork. Working collaboratively on Poetry Aloud, the NLI and Poetry Ireland and UCC aim to bring, in the words of Seamus Heaney “poetry into the memory and affections of

The winners of the Poetry Aloud Competition, pictured at the awards ceremony today in the WB Yeats Library at the National Library of Ireland (NLI), the overall winner Alice Mackle (centre), St Patrick’s Academy, Dungannon, Co Tyrone, Tirzah Hutchinson Edgar (right) and Jake O’Loughlin, both from The High School, Rathgar, Dublin, and Charley Fitzgerald, Presentation Secondary School, Waterford

the young in a way that will make it a lifelong possession and value” In 2021 and 2022, Poetry Aloud adapted to the restrictions used during the pandemic by successfully taking place virtually. Twenty-nine students from schools in Antrim, Armagh, Cork, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, Laois, Mayo, Monaghan, Roscommon, Tipperary, Tyrone, Waterford, and Wicklow participated in the Poetry Aloud 2022 virtual final. We congratulated winners from all over Ireland including Tirzah Hutchinson Edgar, Dublin: Zoe Ncube, Kerry; Charley Fitzgerald, Waterford, Jake O’Loughlin, Dublin; Alice Mackle, Tyrone; Jack Monaghan, Antrim; Mikayla O’Sullivan, Kerry. A ceremony was held in the National Library of Ireland to celebrate the Poetry Aloud winners. Presented by Niall McMonagle and kindly supported by the NLI and University College Cork.

GUTH NA HÉIGSE

Guth na hÉigse is a new initiative which we introduced with the IMRAM festival with the aim of bringing together post-primary school students from across the country, to engage in the presentation of poems in Irish. Stu-

dents actively develop their creative skills, presentation skills and through performing are encouraged to naturally incorporate our first language into everyday life. As an early intervention programme, it will underpin the work of the curriculum and bolster the work of teachers.

The final of both Guth na hÉigse Poetry Speaking Competition and Duais Basho Haiku Competition were held in Smock Alley on the 17th November.  These initiative were run in partnership with IMRAM Festival of Literature.  Guests on the day included Gabriel Rosenstock and Maeve O’Sullivan along with Liam Carson, Director of the IMRAM Festival.

We also partner National Museum of Ireland on the What’s the Scéal? Storytelling Festival at the Museum of Country Life in Mayo with Storytellers Nuala Hayes, Jack Lynch, Pat Ryan, Liz Weir and Oein de Bhardúin, Joe Brennan, Fiona Dowling and Niall de Burca.  The Festival featured schools visits by storytellers, public performance and a symposium on 2nd December, chaired by Theo Dorgan, which was audio recorded and will appear shortly as a Podcast.

Theo Dorgan and his panel of some of Ireland’s best known storytellers at the National Museum of Ireland -CountryLife, Mayo for the What’s the Scéal? Scéalta agus an Seanchaí/Stories and the Storyteller mini symposium

Overall Poetry Aloud winner Alice Mackle, St Patrick’s Academy, Dungannon, Co Tyrone

Our Place Finale at Duncairn Arts Centre Belfast

POETRY IRELAND DEVELOPMENT

In 2023 we will work towards the final phase in our capital campaign for the development of the Poetry Ireland Centre. The remaining fundraising income being raised by Poetry Ireland will allow us to move forward with this very exciting project. Plans have been accelerating at pace. We will keep you updated throughout 2023.

We were delighted to meet with the Heaney family during the year to talk further about the Seamus Heaney Poetry Library, the centre piece of the new Poetry Ireland Centre. With support from DCU and the Adrian

Brinkerhoff Foundation, we will begin the process of recruiting a new Poet-In-Residence in the new year.

Poetry Ireland are delighted to be included in Phase 4 of the RAISE Programme supported by the Arts Council of Ireland, kicking off in January 2023.

Thanks to our Friend and Patron members, new and recurring, whose support during 2022 has been invaluable and much appreciated. For more on the Poetry Ireland Centre and our fundraising work, visit www.poetryireland.ie/fundraising

Our staff are our greatest asset, they are an exceptionally committed and hardworking team. During 2022 we said farewell to Director Niamh O’Donnell who left for the position of Director with the Irish Theatre Institute and welcomed Liz Kelly as the new Director of Poetry Ireland in May

Liz has extensive experience across the arts as a creative producer, facilitator and manager of arts programmes and events for local authorities, festivals and communities. She has worked for the Arts Council; Bealtaine; Sing Ireland; glor, Ennis; Belltable Limerick and numerous local authority arts offices. She was a creative producer on the Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture Project, was Director of both Ennis Book Club Festival and Mountains to Sea dlr Book Festival from 2017 to 2021. She is also a founder director of Galway Based Cultureworks.

Another addition to the team was Louise Kane. Louise replaced Clare O Sullivan as Marketing and Communications Manager. Louise joined Poetry Ireland from Dublin Book Festival.

DIRECTOR

Liz Kelly director@poetryireland.ie

EDUCATION

Education Officer

Jane O’Hanlon janeohanlon@poetryireland.ie Writers in Schools Development Officer Anna Bonner writersinschools@poetryireland.ie Development Education Project Officer Moira Cardiff education@poetryireland.ie

PROGRAMME MANAGER

Elizabeth Mohen elizabeth@poetryireland.ie

PUBLICATIONS

Paul Lenehan publications@poetryireland.ie Eoin Rogers eoin@poetryireland.ie

DEVELOPMENT MANAGER

Anne Hendrick development@poetryireland.ie

COMMUNICATIONS

Louise Kane comms@poetryireland.ie