- Open Mic sign-up: 12.00 – 12.25pm, one poem of up to 40 lines.
- Music: 12.30 – 1.00pm Anne Rynne.
- Guest Poet: 1.00 – 1.30pm. Alvy Carragher.
- Open Mic: 1.30 – 2.00pm. One poem, max. 40 lines.
Over the past 35 years, members of Clare Poetry Collective have produced original anthologies, collections, translations, CDs, film poems, a sound archive and broadsheets. They have performed in numerous Irish festivals and events and broadcast on local, national and international radio and have participated in ekphrastic exhibitions. Some have created and dramatized performance poems. All the poets live, create and perform in bookshops and libraries in localities such as Kilrush, Ennistymon, Ennis, Scarriff, Killaloe, Mountshannon and Shannon. Many also regularly read in Limerick and Galway. Donations are welcome for this event. We thank Poetry Ireland, Clare County Council and The Old Ground Hotel, Ennis for their sponsorship.
Guest Poet Alvy Carragher’s fourth poetry collection, The Only Fear I’ve Ever Had Is Standing Still (The Gallery Press), follows What Remains the Same (2024), which was shortlisted for the Farmgate National Poetry Award. Her work has received the Eavan Boland Award and support from several Arts Council Literature Bursary Awards. She holds an MA in Writing from the University of Galway, where she has occasionally returned to teach poetry. Born in Galway City, she spent her childhood in Portumna, County Galway, and her teenage years in Birdhill, County Tipperary. She has also lived in Louisiana, South Korea and Canada, and currently lives in Dublin.
Guest Musician Anne Rynne is a singer/songwriter who lives in Miltown Malbay. She released her first album on her 68th birthday. It changed her life and all she wants to do now is SING! Her recent album, The Golden Thread, celebrates family. A lifelong activist, she performed, Mammy, When are We Going Home, which gives voice to homeless children, on the Late Late Show.
