I’ve been looking through Pat Boran’s first issue of The Level Crossing, which I bought a couple of weeks ago. I’m about a quarter way through it and finding it very interesting. I was amazed to see that over 900 people had submitted a poem to the first issue of the magazine (including myself). It’s surely […]
Category: Blog
Hey from Hay!
I had a great time at the Hay Festival in Kells last weekend. It has to be the most friendly festival I’ve ever been to. The organisers couldn’t do enough to make one feel like they were a superstar! There was even a green room with all the coffee, food and treats that you could […]
Looking forward to Hay…
I’m delighted to be reading at the Hay Festival in Kells on the 25th June. The festival looks absolutely brilliant and well worth a look on their web site: Hay Festival Kells. I have a whole hour to myself. I’m under no illusions that reading poetry for an hour would be torture for anyone so I’m […]
South Terrace Synagogue: March 2016
South Terrace Synagogue, the main synagogue in Cork, used by much of the community of Jewtown, closed its doors in February 2016. The building was deconsecrated before being handed over to the Church of the Seventh Day Adventists. While it is understandable that the building had to be gutted due to it being in terrible disrepair, it […]
Borris Festival of Writing and Ideas
The Borris Festival of Writing and Ideas is one of the highlights of my festival year. Rozz and I have never missed one since it opened 5 years ago. Emrys missed 3 of the 5 due to not being born but he’s had a 100% record since then. This year was extra special for me […]
In the media…
I’ve been in the newspapers a bit this week. Here are two articles where I’m mentioned: The Irish Times and The Carlow Nationalist. I believe the Carlow Nationalist is going to do a story on my launch next week so looking forward to that.
Looking forward to Borris
I’m looking forward to sharing the stage with Rachel Mennies at the Borris Festival of Writing and Ideas. We will be appearing together at the Eason tent on Sunday 12th around 1:30pm. Rachel is an American poet from Philadelphia and teaches writing at Carnegie Mellon University. She is the author of The Glad Hand of God Points Backwards […]
My pile
This is becoming a bit of a backlog. Got a pressie of Louise Gluck’s poems from Rozz for my launch as Gluck was the first poet that made me like poetry. It looks like it will be a while before I get to her!
Jewtown – the Launch
Tonight was the launch of my first poetry collection, Jewtown. We had a small get together in the house with some friends and family. I made cholent, a Jewish-Lithuanian stew that takes 16 hours to cook, and the title of one of the poems in the collection. It seemed to go down ok and hopefully […]
Article in Irish Examiner
I was delighted to see a huge article in the Irish Examiner about my upcoming collection, Jewtown. The article is mostly about the area of Cork which was known as Jewtown but also concentrates a little bit about my own background and heritage. The full text can be read on the Irish Examiner web site, […]