Adare announced as Poetry town

Poetry Ireland has just announced details of Poetry Town, a new all-island initiative, which will see more than a hundred free poetry-related activities take place in 20 towns across the island of Ireland between 10 and 18 September 2021.

As part of the initiative, Poetry Ireland, together with its local authority partners, will appoint a Poet Laureate for each participating town. The chosen Poet Laureates, who will either be from the respective local area or have strong connections with it, will be commissioned to write a poem honouring and reflecting their Poetry Town and its people. The Poet Laureates for each town will be announced next month.

Each poem will be revealed and presented to the people of the participating towns at a series of flagship online events, one of which will be hosted in each town, which will feature contributions from local poets, artists and musicians.

There will also be a wide variety of additional activities in the Poetry Towns. These will include a series of poetry events involving local poets; poetry workshops; public poetry displays, including ‘Poetry Underfoot’; and a range of physical activities called ‘Poems that Move You’, which will vary from town to town.  Local businesses, including cafés and chemists, will also be participating in the activities to celebrate their towns by distributing ‘pocket poems’ to customers. The full programme for each town will be made available on the Poetry Town website during the last week of August.

Poetry Town activities will take place in the following 20 towns:

• Adare, Co Limerick;
• Athenry, Co Galway;
• Bailieborough, Co Cavan;
• Ballycastle, Co Antrim;
• Bandon, Co Cork;
• Belmullet, Co Mayo;
• Bray, Co Wicklow;
• Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim;
• Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary;
• Cootehill, Co Cavan;
• Dublin 1, Co Dublin;
• Dungarvan, Co Waterford;
• Dunshaughlin, Co Meath;
• Ennistymon, Co Clare;
• Listowel, Co Kerry;
• Mountmellick, Co Laois;
• Naas, Co Kildare;
• Strokestown, Co Roscommon;
• Tullamore, Co Offaly;
• Wexford Town, Co Wexford.

Poetry Town is an initiative of Poetry Ireland in partnership with Local Authority Arts Offices. It is made possible with funding from the Arts Council of Ireland’s Open Call funding, and is also supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

For further information, visit the Poetry Town website: https://www.poetryireland.ie

(Photo caption: Pictured in Mountmellick, Co Laois, at the launch of Poetry Town are Kathleen and Michael O’Loughlin with their grandchildren Billy Byrne (11), Aidan Byrne (10) and Conor Byrne (7). Picture: Marc O’Sullivan).