RTÉ Player has launched a new on-demand Culture collection, featuring an eclectic mix of documentaries and performances from the worlds of Music, Arts, Film & TV and Literature. Each week, the RTÉ Player team suggest a ‘must-watch’ from the Culture collection. This week, the focus is on A Poet’s Rising.
Commissioned by the Irish Writers Centre and funded by the Arts Council as part of ART: 2016, A Poet’s Rising sees six acclaimed Irish poets Theo Dorgan, Paul Muldoon, Thomas McCarthy, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill and Jessica Traynor bring some of the iconic people and places of 1916 to life with newly commissioned poems and original music from violinist and composerColm Mac Con Iomaire.
Each poet was tasked with considering the events of 1916 from the point of view of various individuals and to expand on their perspectives, embodying the atmosphere and tension of the era. The line-up includes Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin with For Connolly, Paul Muldoon with Patrick Pearse: A Manifesto, Jessica Traynor with A Demonstration, a poem about Dr Kathleen Lynn, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill with Íota an Bháis about Michael Joseph O’Rahilly, Theo Dorgan with We Carried It To Here As Best We Could about Elizabeth O’Farrell and the surrender, and Thomas McCarthy with Garden of Remembrance focusing on the Fallen and the act of remembrance. The poets were filmed at iconic locations including the GPO, Moore Street, Liberty Hall and City Hall.
The project was created with a view to producing poetic and historical content that would have a widespread and enduring appeal, lasting long after the centenary celebrations. A Poet’s Rising reveals the specially commissioned poems and includes interviews with the poets, highlighting their artistic processes and their attempts to unravel the complexities of 1916 through the medium of poetry.
Watch A Poet's Rising now on RTÉ Player.
