Atlantis - Modern Irish Poets from the West

We are delighted to announce that the first meeting of Poets from Atlantis will take place in the Michael Cusack Centre in Carron in the Burren on Saturday 25th September 2010.

In light of the burgeoning of poetry groups along the West coast of Ireland in recent years, due in large part to an renewed interest in poetry and a flowering of poetry writing, a bringing together of the groups is timely. The aims of this coming together are several as follows:

• to get to know each other
• to exchange ideas regarding financing
• interchange of poets
• fixing of fees paid to visiting poets
• sharing of resources
• publication, and so on.

The Programme (Saturday 25th)

The first session will begin at 12 noon and will consist of a member of each group giving a summary of that group’s activities.

We will then break for lunch in Cassidy’s.

The second session will consist of a discussion of items of interest as specified above.

An informal poetry reading from the poets present will close proceedings.

The Programme (Sunday 26th)

A Burren walk has been organised for Sunday morning under the auspices of Burrenbeo.

Accommodation & Meals

For any groups wishing to spend the night a special rate of 10 Euro per person has been arranged at one of the local hostels.

Individuals will pay for their own meals.

Getting there

From Galway, turn off at Kilcolgan Cross for Kinvara, and follow the signs for Carron

From Limerick, after Ennis following the signs for Corofin via Leamanah to Carron.

Contact

Contact patrick@clarepoets.com with any questions, and to confirm attendance. We would appreciate if you could let us know ahead of time whether your group will require accommodation and for how many people.

Working with Brian Mooney is tricky for me. 

Brian isn’t a blogger, nor is he a twitterer, facebooker, or even emailer…  He does do the telephone, but not the mobile.  We’re about as far apart as it’s possible to be technologically.

But he’s the heart of the idea of Atlantis.

I have to revolve round him and his quill pen.

Now living in Cheltenham, UK… Author of Chora published by Templar Poetry.

Paul O’Mahony met him at O’Bheal on Monday evening and told him the gist of Atlantis.  Will email him more information.

He may be a good contact for linking with Donegal poets.

There will be news soon…

Last night Paul O’Mahony went to O’Bheal in The Long Valley bar in downtown Cork.

He started to tell Aine Ui Fhoghlu about the plans for Atlantis gathering in November.  He also mentioned it to Paul Casey to see if Paul already knew about it: he doesn’t.  Must fix that soon.  Paul Casey established O’Bheal.

It’s time now to bring this blog out into the open and build up an audience for it.

Today I had a useful phone conversation with Brian Mooney.

Brian has been  beavering away, making Atlantis happen.  He’s been in touch with Dominick Taylor, Patrick Stack, Coole Park, The Friends of Coole Park, Fred Johnson and others…

We are talking about the organisation of a gathering of poets from what we will call "the West". But it’ll include Waterford & Cavan (in other words, all but the Dublin- Belfast corridor).

Brian Mooney and I are serious about this.  We intend to gather an organising ‘committee’ and move this into practicalities.

I remember well the ‘visioning’ discussions we’ve had and it was great to be back in touch with Brian again.  He’s not into blogging, twittering, facebooking and all the social networking media I use.  This means that we make a good team.

At this stage the only news is that we are planning on November for the gathering.  We are open to suggestions as to format and process.

One good thing is that I don’t know any of the politics of the poetry scene in Ireland.  I can blunder on regardless of history and personal agendas & ambitions.  I certainly intend this to be an open inclusive event.  I also want it to make a difference to the status quo - however you’d define that.

I’d like to admit that I think the only Donegal poet I know is Matthew Sweeney.

And Matthew now lives in Cork, so I don’t think that counts, do you?

About time I got to know a few eh…

 

It would be good to construct a comprehensive list of all poetry websites and blogs from the west.

Wouldn’t it?

What’s missing?

Help please.

I’m sure a great time was had by all.

But, when I used google blog to see if anyone had blogged the Cuirt Festival from Galway, I found very little.  Perhaps we could do more to put blogs to work and spread the literature round the world.

What’s the point of hiding your light under a bushel eh?

We are gearing up to run this blog with energy…