Rita Ann Higgins reads her poem 'Work On'.
Poet Rita Ann Higgins was born into a large family in Ballybrit, Galway, and finished her education when she was fourteen years old. She worked in factories until after the birth of her first child. When she was hospitalised for a lengthy period with TB (Tuberculosis) she discovered a love of reading. Creative writing workshops and poetry followed.
Rita Ann Higgins published a first collection of poems 'Goddess on the Mervue Bus' in 1986. Known for her frank and humous language, many poems deal with working class women and their lives.
In 'Work On' Higgins takes the listener into a factory bathroom where a cigarette break helps banish boredom for a few minutes. The workers, all young women, dream of a romantic rescue, but the return to reality is not far away,
Boisterous laughter echoed and betrayed lost time.
'Back to work girls', supervisor sang.
A thousand buttonholes today.
A thousand Ranch House fantasies the weekend.
This episode of ‘Poet’s Eye’ was broadcast on 16 February 1989.
'The Poet's Eye' was a late night series in which poets selected and read from their own work in front of a small studio audience.
