The Poetry Programme: Series 3

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Programme 34: 23rd May 2009

Programme 33: 16th May 2009

Tonight Theo Dorgan talks to poet, novelist, short story writer and critic Mary O'Donnell.

She discusses influences on her work, the craft of poetry and the powerful impact nature has on her life and on her poetry.

Programme 32: 9th May 2009

Theo Dorgan's guest tonight is poet Moya Cannon who was born in Co Donegal but has lived most of her life in Galway. In the programme she talks about the influence of music on her life and work, the importance of finding an authentic voice in poetry and an awareness of tradition which has enhanced and sustained her work.

Programme 31: 25th April 2009

Programme 30: 18th April 2009

The distinguished Belfast born poet Michael Longley is Theo Dorgan's guest in The Poetry Programme this Saturday. He has published several acclaimed volumes of poetry and an autobiographical work "Tuppeny Stung." He is a member of Aosdana and currently holds the Ireland Chair of Poetry.

In the programme he tells Theo Dorgan about his life and work, reads some of his poems and celebrates reaching the grand old age of 70 this year.

Programme 29: 14 March 2009

Programme 28: 7 March 2009

John Montague is one of Ireland's most distinguished living poets. Now in his 80th year he is being feted for a lifetime's work, not just in poetry but in fiction, memoir, translations and as an editor. Since his major success with The Rough Field, John Montague has been acclaimed internationally as a major poet. He has influenced generations of Irish students, especially young Munster poets who studied under him at University College Cork. In 1998 John Montague was the first occupant of the Ireland Chair of Poetry.

In The Poetry Programme Theo Dorgan, a past student of Montague, will be talking to him about his long life in poetry and the elements that have sustained and inspired him over the years.

The Poetry Programme is presented by Theo Dorgan and produced by Seamus Hosey.

Programme 27: 21 February 2009

Programme 26: 14 February 2009

Theo Dorgan talks to the acclaimed poet Colm Breathnach whose selected poems in Irish, Rogha Danta/Selected Poems (1991 - 2008) was published at the end of 2008. He is four times winner of the Oireachtas premier prize for poetry in Irish.

Programme 25: 7 February 2009

Programme 24: 31 January 2009

Programme 23: 24 January 2009

Programme 22: 17 January 2009

Programme 21: 10 January 2009

Programme 20: 3 January 2009

On this evening's programme Gerald Dawe is in conversation with poets Chris Agee of Irish Pages and Pat Ramsay of Lagan Press.

Programme 19: 27 December 2008

This week Gerald Dawe is in conversation with poet Frank Ormsby.

Programme 18: 25 December 2008

CAPTIVATING BRIGHTNESS

A celebration of the year in poetry with music and song.
Captivating Brightness is a celebration of the year in poetry, music and song presented by Gerald Dawe and produced by Seamus Hosey. The programme features highlights from a rich variety of programmes broadcast throughout the year with poems and lyrics brought vividly to life by the poets themselves.

Programme 17: 20 December 2008

Tonight Gerald Dawe talks with poet Kevin Higgins.

In 2005 Kevin Higgins was shortlisted for the Hennessy Award for Poetry and awarded a Literature Bursary by the Arts Council for his collection The Boy With No Face. Apart from writing poetry Kevin also teaches in the Galway Arts Centre and was one of the co-organisers of the "Over The Edge: Open Reading Series".

Programme 16: 13 December 2008

Edna Longley reflects on the work of the poet Edward Thomas whose Collected Poems she has recently edited.

On 11 November 1985, Thomas was among 16 Great War poets commemorated on a slate stone unveiled in Westminster Abbey's Poet's Corner. The inscription on the stone was written by a fellow Great War poet, Wilfred Owen. It reads: "My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity."

Programme 15: 6 December 2008

This evening's programme features poet Medbh McGuckian.

Medbh McGukian entered the world of published poetry through two pamphlets titled Single Ladies: Sixteen Poems and Portrait of Joanna, in 1980. The year that she won an Eric Gregory Award. McGuckian's first major collection came in 1982 with The Flower Master, which primarily looked at the idea of post-natal breakdown. From this she was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, an Ireland Arts Council Award and an Alice Hunt Bartlett Award in 1983. Her next major collection, On Ballycastle Beach, also won numerous prizes including the 1989 Cheltenham Prize.

Since then Medbh McGuckian has edited an anthology (The Big Striped Golfing Umbrella: Poems by Young People from Northern Ireland (1985)) and has written numerous studies including Horsepower Pass By!

She has also had a volume of Selected Poems: 1978-1994 published and her latest collection is called The Book of the Angel (2004). In 2002 she was awarded the Forward Poetry Prize for the poem She is in the Past, She Has This Grace.

Programme 14: 29 November 2008

On the programme tonight Gerald Dawe is in conversation with Sean Lysaght.

Limerick born poet Seán Lysaght's writing career really started in 1985 when he became the award winner at the annual Patrick Kavanagh poetry festival. His first collection of poetry, Noah's Irish Ark was published in 1989, followed by The Clare Island Survey (Gallery, 1991; nominated for The Irish Times/Aer Lingus poetry award). Following this success he went on to lecture in English at St Patrick's College, Maynooth where he received a PhD for his work on the life and writings of Robert Lloyd Praeger, subsequently published as Robert Lloyd Praeger: The Life of a Naturalist (Four Courts, 1998). His subsequent collections, Scarecrow (1998) and Erris (2002) and The Mouth of a River (2007) were published by The Gallery Press. Following his 2007 success with the O'Shaughnessy Award for Poetry, Lysaght went on to write Venetian Epigrams (Translations after Goethe) and was published in June 2008.

Programme 13: 22 November 2008

Gerald Dawe in conversation with Ulster poet Sinead Morrissey.
Northern Irish poet Sinéad Morrissey has published three collections of poetry: There Was Fire in Vancouver (1996); Between Here and There (2002); and The State of the Prisons (2005). Her first two publications saw her become the 2002 Poetry International Writer in Residence at the Royal Festival Hall. Currently she is Writer in Residence at Queen's University, Belfast. She was selected by the British Council to take part in the Writers' Train Project in China in 2003 and went on to be awarded a Lannan Literary Fellowship in 2007.

Programme 12: 15 November 2008

A discussion of the work of the great Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert with translator Cathal McCabe and Polish writer Jerzy Jarniewicz.

Zbigniew Herbert (1924-1998) was a spiritual leader of the anticommunist movement in Poland. His work has been translated into almost every European language, and he won numerous prizes, including the Jerusalem Prize and the T. S. Eliot Prize. His books include Selected Poems, Report from the Besieged City and Other Poems, Mr Cogito, Still Life with a Bridle, and King of the Ants, all of which are published by Ecco.

Programme 11: 8 November 2008

On the eve of the Remembrance Day ceremonies, presenter Gerald Dawe and Dr. Terence Brown discuss a new Irish anthology of War poets.

Programme 10: 1 November 2008

Gerald Dawe in conversation with Belfast-poet Ciaran Carson whose 60th birthday coincides with the publication of his Collected Poems.

Ciaran's collections of poetry started in 1976 with The New Estate which was published by Blackstaff Press. Since then he has gone on to produce The Irish for No (1987), winner of the Alice Hunt Bartlett Award; Belfast Confetti (1990), winner of the Irish Times Irish Literature Prize for Poetry; and First Language: Poems (1993), winner of the T. S. Eliot Prize. Much of his work also included prose such as The Star Factory (1997) and Fishing for Amber (1999). In more recent times Ciaran has turned his attention to writing novels such as Shamrock Tea (2001) which explores themes present in Jan van Eyck's painting The Arnolfini Marriage. Since then Ciaran has gone on to win the Forward Poetry Prize for Breaking News in 2003 as well as work on four further books including the highly acclaimed For All We Know (2008).

Programme 9: 25 October 2008

This evening Gerald Dawe is in conversation with Professor Nicholas Grene of Trinity College, Dublin whose new book Yeats' Poetic Codes has just been published by Oxford University Press.
Grene's book explores Yeats' poetic codes of practice, the key words and habits of speech that shape the reading experience of his poetry. Where previous studies have sought to decode his work by looking into its symbolic meanings by references to Yeats' occult beliefs, philosophical ideas or political ideology, the focus here is on his poetic technique. The book all examines Yeats' poetry's typical forms and their implications for the understanding of the poems.

Programme 8: 18 October 2008

On the programme this evening Gerald Dawe is in conversation with poet Mary O'Malley.

Programme 7: 11 October 2008

On the programme this evening Thomas Kinsella introduces a reading of his acclaimed poem Nightwalker on the fortieth anniversary of its first publication by the Dolmen Press.

Programme 6: 4th October 2008

This evening Gerald Dawe is in conversation with the poet Seamus Heaney.

Programme 5: 27th September 2008

Programme 4: 20th September 2008

Programme 3: 13th September 2008

Programme 2: 6th September 2008

Programme 1: 23rd August 2008