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As you can see below, this blog is not currently active.

It is dormant.

Feel free to read the archives.

Sorry for any broken links or missing pictures.

Maybe it shall resuscitate someday.

Cuisle Young Poet of the Year Competition

As you know this is one of my all time favourite poetry competitions for young writers. For one, there aren't all that many going around. Oh yeah, and I won it two years ago.

Are you between the ages of 8 and 18? Cuisle would like you to write up to three poems, about anything that matters to you, in Irish or English. Winners will be invited to read during our festival in October, when prizes will be awarded at a special ceremony. 

Start writing now! Send us your poems, each accompanied by an entry form, by 24 September 2012.


Entry forms here

Connacht Heat of the All-Ireland Poetry Slam

North Beach Poetry Nights hosts...

The Connacht Heat of the All-Ireland Poetry Slam on Monday 10th September in The Crane Bar, Sea Road, Galway

At 6.30 pm 

Poets wishing to enter the Slam on the night need 2 max. three minutes poems, both performed without a script. So get memorizing now.

There are slots for 16 performers, so get your name in now per email (johnmawalsh@gmail.com) if you want to participate.

Remember: you must be from or resident in Connacht.

The All-Ireland Slam will be at O’Bheal in Cork on Friday 30 November.

Door: 5/3 Euro

My Fellow Sponges are playing on the night

From http://artsingalway.com/

Scene Shifters

There's nothing like the air on your face to lift the cobwebs. Notebook in hand, actually pocket, I took to the boreens. They never let me down. There along ankle length grass, wild blackberry brier and rusted fern the scribbling came fast and furious. There's a lot going on in Connemara that you'd never know, passing through or along the coast road. Seems quiet. Laid back. Odd bit of traffic. And up until last month the dusk time hauling of turf. Clunks on the roadside the only evidence next day. There's always fodder for a murder plot or two. Maybe even an awakening deep within. It's My Time. And staring across at Aran or Burren I am in my writing zone. The grass whispers here, and tree branches rattle. Even the wind through the stone walls has something to say. Today's story took root by a field. A man and his dog. Contented pair. Him digging spuds from his plot of land. His dog lying in the grass, watching, by his side as the spade turned the earth over and over. There in the clay this season's potatoes, just in time for tea and my wee notebook. Stories, they sprout everywhere and anywhere.

Celebrating the Solstice

The 21st of June has long been celebrated as the brightest day of the year. To celebrate the beginning of summer Brigit's Garden held a community bonfire. We had never been before so we took the opportunity to look around. It has four different gardens celebrating each of the four Celtic seasons among other things, such as plantings of the Ogham trees. 

Ogham is an early medieval alphabet composed of various horizontal lines crossing a vertical one. The name Ogham is allegedly derived from that of the Celtic god of literature and eloquence, Ogma. It is sometimes called "The Celtic Tree Alphabet," based on a tradition associating the names of trees to individual letters. The letters are primarily named after Irish native trees. 

Along with the bonfire, there was a drumming workshop in a marquee (big tent) which could be heard all over the garden. Afterwards there was a torch-lit procession, whereby the employees of the gardens (and some uh, lovely children) held torches while the rest of us followed with tea lights in Styrofoam cups. 

In a Celtic revival sort of ceremony, we filed under a living arch of branches while incense burned and women sang a Celtic song with the drums. I would have preferred this one instead.



We walked through the stone circle and around to the pile of wood.

Our tea lights were put in a large circle around the fire and the torches placed in the ground before the pyre was set alight from the hay piled beneath it. 

There was a fire dancer with all kinds of flaming fire tools. Some looked like arcs.

Some looked like wings.

After the singing procession, the drumming heart beat, and the shape of the pyre, a lot of us were thinking Wicker Man. At first there was smoke, drifting over all of us where we stood shivering and waiting in the twilight (because, of course, although it was almost ten, the light was still lingering).

Then it burst into flame!

And gradually...

died away.

Writers' Blok by Ja¢kson Pearce

Can't believe I only just discovered her! Her videos are amazing, and she is such a great role model for young (female) writers. Now I just have to read her books...

Any Galwegians Want to Volunteer?

I am part of the  Galway Science and Technology Festival committee this year and just thought I'd mention that the festival is looking for volunteers for the Exhibition Day which takes place at NUI Galway on Sunday November 27.

The organising committee and NUI Galway are looking for 100 volunteers to help out on the day when hundreds of scientists, engineers and business innovators will showcase their work at 60 interactive stands.

Visitors to the exhibition will be able to participate in experiments, watch demonstrations, and discuss ideas with researchers from NUI Galway and GMIT, as well as industry representatives from the festival’s main sponsor Medtronic and others such as Boston Scientific, CISCO, Hewlett Packard, Avaya, Covidien, SAP, Lake Region and Creganna.

Different exhibits will allow the public to learn more about topics such as life-saving medical devices, renewable energy, IT in the future, and kitchen chemistry. NUI Galway’s museums will all be open on the day, and the popular 3D tour of the universe makes a welcome return.

Dean of Science at NUI Galway, Professor Tom Sherry, says the college is delighted to host the exhibition for the second year in a row.

“ Last year’s event was a huge success, “ he says, “and this year we have been working hard to improve dealing with the large numbers of visitors we are expecting. For this purpose, we are inviting anyone who is interested to volunteer some of their time on the 27th to help us get people around to all of the different activities that will be spread across the NUI Galway campus.”

A science and technology background is not required to volunteer as information and training will be given in advance of the event. To sign up for volunteering please contact william.brennan@nuigalway.ie . For general information on the festival seewww.galwayscience.ie and to prebook the shows for the exhibition visit www.galwayscience.eventbrite.com

You can follow the above links to see more about he festival. The exhibition day is free for all and is a fun, family-oriented event. Check out the cool shows that are on and book your place now because it gets crowded. Fast.

Sadie and Loki

Remember Sadie and Loki, those cute little kittens? Well they're getting bigger and stronger.

But...they still think they're kitten-sized!

Twitter Saves a Bookstore

Well not Twitter exactly, but back to that in a minute.  

I'm part of a group called ItStartsWith.Us. The goal of ItStartsWith.Us is "to build a global community of individuals focused on making a positive impact in the lives of the people around them." And it takes just 15 minutes a week. This week the mission is to take that 15 minutes to help promote someone or a cause. It was inspired by a video about how a dedicated son, a blog post, a tweet, and a promise of free burritos saved a bookstore. 

When I saw the video I knew I had to share it, so here it is.

Last Monday there was more flooding here in Ireland. We had some really bad flooding in late 2009 and after the earthquake in Haiti (early 2010) there was a huge outcry that we had helped over there but hadn't helped our flood victims. This time let's do more: The Irish Red Cross is running a Floods Appeal until the 26th November. 

Donal Forde, Secretary General of Irish Red Cross said “Donations received will be used to support those whose homes have been damaged by flood water caused by Monday’s record rainfall. We will work closely with the Community Welfare Service within the Department of Social Protection to identify those most in need of our assistance”.

Anyone wishing to donate to the Irish Red Cross ‘Irish Floods’ appeal can do so online; by phone: 1850 50 70 70; or by cheque made out to ‘Irish Red Cross’ and marked ‘Irish Floods’ and sent to Irish Red Cross, 16 Merrion Square, Dublin 2.

And the Winners...Aren't

On my last post a commenter asked how I manage to win so many competitions.

I replied that you have to enter to win, which is a bit of a disappointment. I mean that's kind of obvious, isn't it? Still, people often overlook it. How can I be jealous of people for getting published in this magazine and that when I haven't even submitted? I can't. Not reasonably anyway.

That said, this is my blog. So obviously everything is a bit one-sided and biased. For example, let's see how many times I've posted about not winning/placing in a competition....

Not once.
(small margin of error here - I might possibly have posted once or twice)

So this post is about all the competitions I haven't won (kind of a difficult feat considering I like to block out these rejections of my work, but I'll work from what I do remember).

Firstly: Foyle Young Poets Competition. I entered in 2010 and 2011 and I did not receive a thing - not even a special mention. Then there's my story Wizened, which I really like. I entered a fantasy writing contest with it and got...nothing. Then a special secondary-schools story competition in the Clare Champion with the same story. Once again, nothing.

Those are the reasons I then decided to focus on my poetry. Even so, I didn't get a thing in Cuisle this year. You can submit up to three poems and I submitted three. None on par with Creation and Evolution I guess.

That's all I can remember off-hand that I have entered but haven't won. Like I said, my mind blocks out losing.

P.S. Lovely bit of graffiti, that, isn't it? These pictures were part of the final result of a photography course we took in school.

And the Winners Are...

I didn't mention it here, but Visit Woods and the WWF were running a short story competition called the Big Forest Story Picnic. The theme was to be about the forest and the woods, and simply to do with conservation I suppose. I forget the exact parameters if there were any. Anyway, the winners have finally been choosen after a month's extension on the announcement date. And, I have won the sixteen and under section. See below :)

{Edit 2014: This can no longer be viewed online. VisitWoods began in 2008 with the aim of bringing together information about woods that are open to the public and inspiring people about visiting woods. The project was funded by the Big Lottery Fund (administered by Natural England) for 5 years and came to an end on 31st December 2013.}

I win free books. If I had one the older age category it would have been a Kindle, but I suppose I will have to live with ten books of my choice. Heehee...

In addition, you might recall a competition I did mention here, which was the Concern Creative Writing Competition. I have been told recently that my entry (short-listed as I found out) is to be included in the Concern Creative Writing Competition book, which will be published by Liffey Press. Last year I got nothing, so as you can see I am slowly scaling the steps to the top.

Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry vs. To Kill a Mockingbird

I was reading the best-seller list in the Sunday paper last week. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and To Kill a Mockingbird were both on it. Roll of Thunder was under Children's and To Kill a Mockingbird was under Paperback Fiction. It seems schools in general are pretty much split between the two. Oh, there are other novels that are chosen (Lord of the Flies and Of Mice and Men, for example) but it is these two that made the best-seller list. These that parents all over Ireland rushed out to buy in their droves the last weeks of August and the first few weeks of September.

The list-fellows of To Kill a Mockingbird are: One Day (David Nicholls, the film is now playing in cinemas), The Help (Kathryn Stockett, also now a film, release date 28 October), The Confession (John Grisham), and Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow (chick-lit by Claudia Carroll). Altogether a broad range of titles (also not in order).

Roll of Thunder, by contrast, has not one but two Diary of a Wimpy Kids as list-fellows. Need I say more?

Introducing Sadie and Loki

They may belong to the next-door neighbours but they seem to like us. And we like them, so meet Loki...

and Sadie.

As you'll have noticed, I changed the blog header photo again. It was MM's idea actually. If you want to see the whole evolution of my blog header photos, here you go.

Cuisle Time Again

Believe it or not, it's Cuisle time again! Seems like it was only - a year ago that I was entering last year's competition. Oh wait, it was a year ago!
Anyway, if you're under eighteen, I would strongly suggest entering. I mean, how many other poetry competitions give out trophies? Trophies.
The details are below.


Limerick City International Poetry Festival 12-15 Oct 2011
YOUNG POET OF THE YEAR COMPETITION 


Cuisle Young Poet of the Year Competition would like you to write a poem or three poems. This or these Poems can be about anything, anything that matters to you, things that happen in your life: special occasions or everyday events. 

This competition is promoted by Cuisle, Limerick City International Poetry Festival. Winners will be invited to read during our festival in October and prizes will be awarded at a special award ceremony.

Start writing now! Send us your poems. We look forward to reading them.




RULES OF COMPETITION

• Entries for Cuisle Young Poet of the Year Competition 2011 may be on any subject and not more than 30 lines.
• Entries are invited in 3 CATEGORIES: 
Category 1: Poets aged 8-12: under 12 on 1st September 2011 
Category 2: Poets aged 12-15: under 15 on 1st September 2011 
Category 3: Poets aged 15-18: under 18 on 1st September 2011 
• Entries are welcomed in both Irish and English. 
• Entries should be submitted typewritten on A4 pages. 
• The name and address of the poet must NOT appear on the manuscript. 
• Entrants may submit up to 3 poems, EACH with a completed Entry Form. 
• Poems must be submitted by 14th September, 2011 at the latest. 
• Each entry must be the original work of the poet, must not have been published or broadcast previously nor already submitted elsewhere for publication. Entries will not be returned. 
• Entries must be submitted by post to:
Cuisle Young Poet of the Year Competition 
Arts Office
Limerick City Council 
City Hall 
Merchant’s Quay 
Limerick 
• Entries will not be accepted by email. 
• Please mark envelope(s) Cuisle Young Poet of the Year Competition. 

 • Prizes will be awarded in each category. 
• Winners will be notified in October, 2011. 
• Winners will be announced at the Cuisle International Poetry Festival 12-15 October 2011, and will be invited to take part in a special Cuisle Awards Ceremony in Limerick. 


For further information on any of the events contact: 
Competition Co-ordinator: Bertha McCullagh. Tel: 085 7593265 
The Arts Office: Tel. 061 407363 


Entry forms may be downloaded from www.limerickcity.ie or www.meta.ie  (here is a link to a printable pdf entry form - the details are also on the pdf)

Entry forms also available from Schools, Colleges, Libraries and Belltable Arts Centre at Limerick Tourist Information Office: tel. 061319866.
Information and Application forms also on Poetry Ireland website www.poetryireland.ie/resources/competitions.php

For more information on the Cuisle Festival, the link is here.
For older poets, The Stony Thursday Book, a Limerick based poetry magazine, will also be published as part of the festival, but unfortunately submissions closed on the 12th of August. There is always next year however.

Kerry Trip

1. Cromwell's Bridge, Kenmare. Oliver Cromwell never came to Kerry and the name is more likely from croimeal, Irish for moustache.

2. The Dursey Island cable car - the only cable car in Ireland. We happened to take it on a windy rainy stormy day. A bird flew under us, over the dangerous currents of Dursey Sound. We didn't get a chance to explore the island, as we got saturated almost as soon as we exited the cable car and decided to return immediately.

3. The release of ten white-tailed eagles as part of the re-introduction of Ireland's disappeared winged predators. These were only one year old. Their white tails don't appear until they are three or four, and they don't mate until they are about five. In the space of four or five years however, poison and wind turbines take their toll. So we hope these survive to have little baby eagles of their own. A further thirteen were released the week after we returned.

4. Carrauntoohil, Ireland's highest mountain (which is only 1039m).

5. Uragh stone circle: the biggest monolith is 3m high and the circle has a diameter of eight feet.

6.  The Glanmore River and Lake.

7. Anemones and starfish in a sea-cave.

Poets Meet Painters Launch

Photo from anaduncan.com

This is the sculpture 'Crest' by Ana Duncan. It is what inspired my poem 'Fishing,' which won first prize in the schools section of the Millcove Gallery Poets Meet Painters competition. That and my experience of fishing from a boat instead of a pier for the first time a couple years ago.
I noticed that a lot of the short-list and winners had drawn on their own experiences and memories for their poem but yet had a clear link to the artwork they were inspired by. I think the artwork more inspired reflection and thought on the poets' own experiences than created a new scenario in the poets' minds, which is what I had imagined would happen. But then, the relating of our own thoughts, experiences, and memories is rather the definition of poetry.
The launch of the Poets Meet Painters anthology was a nice event. It was raining, unfortunately, but most of the audience was covered by the tent that was set up outside. Copies of the anthology, water, and wine all seemed to sell very fast. Amazingly enough, everyone was there on time, even early, which the gallery didn't expect. And small wonder, with the Irish sense of time!
What I found most interesting was that the artists of the pieces were there. Last year only a few were in attendance. Ana Duncan said that 'Crest,' and her series of similar works were inspired by the struggle between man and the sea. I found it interesting how I managed to pick up on that with my poem, which details a fishing trip out on the sea. Most of the artists were able to reveal that they had been inspired by similar themes to those that inspired the poets.
This competition and event is growing fast people. I suggest you get writing for next year's competition!

To see more of Ana Duncan's work, her website is here.
For details of the winners, photos, and to purchase the Poets Meet Painters anthology for a measly fiver plus postage, the Hungry Hill Writing Website is here.

'The Winter of Our Discontent' Book Review

I found this book hard to get through, for a while at least. It didn't seem to draw me in like the rest of Steinbeck's books do. It took about half of the book to get me really involved. The sometimes first person narrative threw me a little, I must admit. The story was good though. I thought it was a little...older in feeling than the others I have read, but it makes sense as it was his last novel.


From the blurb: Ethan Allen Hawley's family has come down in the world. His father's people were prosperous ship-owner sin New Baytown, but Ethan is a clerk in a grocery store...One day the seed of a chance incident blossoms into a fantastic resolution in Ethan's mind. Why shouldn't the mouse sharpen his teeth and join the rat-race? Why shouldn't the honest man use the very quality of steel that has made him honest to cut his way through the competitive jungle? Ethan is armed for his pirate project not only with his reputation but with a great deal of inside knowledge about his customers, the citizens of New Baytown. The winter of our discontent appears to have turned to glorious summer. But though he has proved several superficial truths,he has forgotten a fundamental one: dishonesty is invisibly infectious.
I think the way I read this, in between a myriad of other books, contributed to me not liking it as much as Steinbeck's other novels. I love reading Steinbeck because he is refreshing, and for this book, like the blurb says "he has put his finger on the pulse of a small town." Steinbeck is an expert at showing that though people appear different on the surface, thoughts, feeling, impulses, and urges are the same within. 
The Winter of Our Discontent was darker, I thought, than a lot of his earlier work. I enjoyed reading it. As always the characterisation was superb, and New Baytown was described in intricate detail. The plot was more in evidence than in some of his other work, and it was overall an engrossing novel.


I give it:

Plot: ***

Characters: *****

Voice: ***

Originality: ***

Dialogue: *****

Which means... four stars

Amazon listing here.

The Meeting of the Waters, Killarney

We returned from Kerry last Friday. Along with the Poets Meet Painters launch and award ceremony, we managed to squeeze a lot in.

This is a postcard from 1917. The scene depicted is the Meeting of the Waters, near Killarney. I thought it would be interesting to see what it looks like today (and take a photo of course). We stopped off and took a short fifteen-minute walk or there about to the Meeting of the Waters (The Meeting of the Waters is the point where the Upper, Middle (Muckross lake) and Lower (Lough Leane) lakes meet).

It was like foggy memory. There was that recognition and déjà vu of an unexplainably familiar place but the knowledge that I had seen it in a picture and had just never seen it in person. Of course there was also relief that it looked, well, exactly the same. Sure there were changes, the bushes had grown somewhat in the intervening (almost) one hundred years. The boat that passed under the bridge was a motor boat with people hooked into orange life-vests, instead of the row boat on the postcard. There was the fact that the path was right in front of the toilets and the bridge had been "restored" in 2007. But overall there was definitely a sense of continuity.

Olive writes that they came under the bridge (Old Weir Bridge) during her trip on the lakes and had seen deer along the banks. I witnessed a boat making the same journey and I have stood in the National Park listening to the deer. Killarney and its surrounds have been inhabited for 4,000 years. In 1750 Viscount Kenmare built roads, boating facilities, and inns. Queen Victoria visited in 1861 with her entourage and the first Irish National Park was formed in 1932.

Killarney may have become a huge tumour of hotels and resorts since then but buried underneath its essence is still there. It has a long past that is still tangible. And it has a future.

Sky Lantern

We belatedly celebrated the solstice and the end of my exams the other night with one of these sky lanterns. They are cool, rising like miniature hot air balloons. Well, maybe not too miniature, this one was pretty big! They are cheap too, and relatively easy to light and send off. Ours rose fast, even on a night with little wind, so it's probably best to let them off on a windless evening.

I'm currently in the process of moving my WordPress photography blog over to blogger. It's a lot of work, but hopefully when I'm finished it will end up many times easier to navigate (for me and for readers).

We will be heading down to Cork and Kerry and the Millcove Gallery for the Poets Meet Painters award ceremony/publication launch on the 30th of July. We are hoping to spend a week down there hiking in the National Park and exploring the area.

'Siberia' Book Review

'Siberia,' by Ann Halam, is an intriguing book. It is set in the future, and it only took me until the end of the book to realise that I had read Halam before, in the equally thrilling 'Dr Franklin's Island.' One of the things that I like most about her books is that, though they show a bleak and sometimes depressing world, they end rather happily. Enough to make the reader believe there is hope for the world she has created.

From the blurb: When Rosita was tiny...she and her mama had to go and live in an ugly place...a prison camp...she didn't understand her mama's magic...She only knew she had to keep the secret until Mama said it was time to start on the great journey...But once Rosita grew up to be a tough, cynical girl called Sloe...Mama was gone. Sloe had to make the journey alone...Sloe becomes a heroine, equal to anything, in this dazzling blend of science, adventure, and fairy tale.
I really enjoyed reading this book.  Like the blurb says, it is a mix of science, adventure, and fairy tale. Each element is warped and rearranged to fit with the others but they are no less pure for that. The world as Halam created it was spectacular. I could see everything as though it was before me, and the people fit cleanly into it. It might be true that people will easier believe a big lie than a small one, and that is true here. How odd this book seems, though no less odd than the other I read, but it is...believable. Sloe's love for the tiny animals is real and her adventures as she tries to make it back to her mother are difficult and trying. The other characters are vibrant. I think this was a great book. In fact, I might recommend it on the strength of the note at the end alone.
Halam writes:
The greatest seedbank in the world is held in Lenigrad....In the Second World War...half a million people starved, but the curators of the seedbank barricaded themselves in, and defended their stocks - the hope of the future - from the starving citizens. When Allied soldiers finally entered the facility, they found the emciated bodies of the botanist lying beside full sacks of potatoes, maize and wheat, a priceless genetic legacy for which they had given their lives. This is the story that gave me the idea for Sloe and her adventures...The Siberia I'm talking about in this story is not a place. Siberia is a sate of mind.


I give it:

Plot: *****

Characters: *****

Voice: *****

Originality*****(is six possible here?)

Dialogue: ****

Which means... five stars

Amazon listing here.