Adare goes all out for Poetry Town festival.

ADARE will don the mantle of Poetry Town over the next two weekends, becoming one of 20 towns around the country to be included in the innovative Poetry Towns scheme.

The scheme, which is an initiative of Poetry Ireland, will also see Adare’s newly appointed poet laureate, Ed O’Dwyer, unveil his newly-minted poem about Adare. Andrew Timoney of Draíocht has taken on the task of co-ordinating the local programme for Poetry Town with many of the events taking place outdoors. The fun kicks off on Saturday, when Kate Quigley, a young poet from Kerry will team up with poet and musician Michael Durack from Birdhill, to read some of their recently published work.

These readings will take place at the Saturday Market outside the Village Hall and people are being invited to grab a coffee and come along for a taste of the spoken word starting at 10am and continuing on a come and go as you please basis.

Then on Sunday, the local town park will become a hothouse of the spoken word with readings and performances from half a dozen poets. These will include John Liddy the Madrid-based Limerick poet whose recently launched Arias of Consolation is a powerful homage to Limerick, past and present.

He will be joined by Adare poet laureate Ed O’Dwyer, Gabriel Fitzmaurice, Jessica Brown, Kieran Beville and Mike MacDomhnall. This also will be an event where listeners can pick and choose.

“The key to Poetry Town is that it is poetry or the spoken work in a relaxed setting and accessible to all,” says Andrew.

It has been very much a community endeavour, he adds, with the local Business Association, the Tidy Towns Committee and the Village Hall, all rowing in to help.

“I love the whole notion,” Andrew adds. “I think it is a very natural fit with the village and not unlike the En Plein Air event which got a huge response from local people.”

His hope is that local people and people from towns and villages around will drop into Adare over the weekend and dip into the different poetry offerings.

“The community here in the village welcomes the Poetry Town initiative and Poetry Ireland to Adare,” he continues.

The following weekend, Saturday, September 18, there will be what Andrew is calling “the big reveal” when Adare poet laureate Ed O’Dwyer will give the first public reading of his new poem about Adare.

But the event will also give a nod to old Adare with Prionsias MacMahon reciting a short Séan Ó Riada piece in this, the 90th anniversary year of O’Riada’s birth and George Stacpoole giving a rendition of Gerald Griffin’s O Sweet Adare. There will also be short poetry readings by Breda Spaight and Mike MacDomhnall.

There will be limited capacity for this indoor event but it will be filmed and put up online.

Photo courtesy of the Limerick Leader: Adare’s newly appointed laureate, Ed O’Dwyer.

By Norma Prendville of the Limerick Leader. Email: normap@limerickleader.ie