Pre Festival Poetry Launch Party 2024 Ceiliúradh Sheoladh na Féile

Pre Festival Poetry Launch Party 2024
Ceiliúradh Sheoladh na Féile

In advance of the festival weekend (Sept 13th – 15th) we’re starting as we mean to go on, kicking off this year’s festivities with our first-ever pre-festival Poetry Launch Party!

Featuring special guests, poets Tony Curtis and Ceaití Ní Bheildiúin, with music provided by Mark Flynn, join us in the always atmospheric Skerries Mills for an evening of poetry in English and Irish, lively music and, of course, plenty of fun!

• Venue: Watermills Café, Skerries Mills
• Date and time: Friday / Dé hAoine 06/09/2024, 8 to 10 pm
• Light refreshments.
• Bilingual, live music.
• Free, but ticketed. Secure your ticket here.

Tony Curtis

Tony Curtis was born in Dublin in 1955. He was educated at Essex University and Trinity College Dublin. An award-winning poet, Curtis has published ten warmly received collections. His most recent titles are Folk (Arc Publications 201I); Pony with drawings and painting by David Lilburn (Occasional Press 2013); Approximately in the Key of C (Arc Publications 2015) and This Flight Tonight with drawings by David Lilburn (Occasional Press 2019). During Covid he published two small books with the photographer Liam Blake: The Syncline: Allihies, Beara, West Cork & Between The Tides: twenty-four poems about twenty-four fascinating women poets (Real Ireland, 2021).

He is currently working on a book about the Pacific Northwest sculptor Philip McCracken. Curtis has received the Irish National Poetry Prize and the Varuna Exchange Fellowship to Australia. In April 2018, Curtis was awarded the 22nd Lawrence O’Shaughnessy prize for poetry from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. He has read his poetry all over the world to great acclaim. He is a member of Aosdána.

Ceaití Ní Bheildiúin

Cé gur as Ros Eo í ó dhúchas, tá Ceaití Ní Bheildiúin ina cónaí i gCorca Dhuibhne, Co. Chiarraí, anois. Is as Gaeilge a scríobhann sí agus tá ceithre chnuasach dá bundánta foilsithe ag Coiscéim. Bhuaigh an cnuasach is déanaí óna peann, Agallamh sa Cheo – Cnoc Bhréanainn, duais Michael Hartnett 2021, chomh maith le duais an Oireachtais 2018. Tá dhá chnuasach dhátheangach d’fhilíocht Ceaití i gcló chomh maith, aistriúchán Béarla ó Paddy Bushe atá i Let the Hare Sit / Lig don nGiorria Suí, Dedalus Press 2022, agus aistriúchán David Knowles atá i Translating Mount Brandon, Ponc Press 2022, leabhrán teoranta uimhrithe.

Oibríonn Ceaití le Féile Filíochta Fhine Gall, ag cruthú is ag forbairt taobh Gaeilge don bhféile sin. Is stiúrthóir í chomh maith ar cheardlanna scríbhneoireachta cruthaitheacha agus ceardlanna filíochta, as Gaeilge, sa Díseart, Co. Chiarraí.

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Ceaití Ní Bheildiúin, originally from Rush in North County Dublin, lives now in the Gaeltacht of West Kerry. Ní Bheildiúin writes in Irish. Four volumes of her original poetry, have been published by Coiscéim, the latest of which is Agallamh sa Cheo – Cnoc Bhréánainn, which earned her the Michael Harnett Prize 2021, as well as the Oireachtas prize 2018. A selected bilingual volume of her poetry, plus a bilingual letterpress poetry chapbook by her, have also been published. The translations to English are by Paddy Bushe in Let the Hare Sit / Lig don nGiorria Suí, Dedalus Press 2022, and by David Knowles in Translating Mount Brandon, Ponc Press 2022. Ceaití works with Fingal Poetry Festival creating and developing the Irish-language aspect to that festival. She also facilitates both creative writing and poetry workshops through Irish at the Díseart in Dingle, Co. Kerry.

Mark Flynn

Blessed with a voice that can well and truly soar, Mark Flynn blends his organic guitar playing with a vocal that is turns powerful, tender and innocent. Formerly a member of The Blood Red Mountain Band, his solo work is both emotionally energetic and introspective.

Inhabiting the liminal space between genres like alt-country, folk and rock and roll delivered with a distinctly honest tone. Cited influences are: The Waterboys, The Band, Bob Dylan and The Pogues.

He is currently developing songs to be included on an album, a follow up to the Blood Red Mountain Band’s Number 1 album Far From Daylight. A northsider who spent his summers growing up in Rush, Mark currently plays a Monday night residency in the famous International Bar in Dublin City.

Photo of Mark Flynn by Ian Shipley Photography

Kicking off the Fingal Poetry Festival with our first-ever Launch Party! With poets Tony Curtis & Ceaití Ní Bheildiúin, music: Mark Flynn