Reverberations is an essential new six-part series on RTÉ Radio One Extra - the series continues on Monday 23rd October, at 6pm.
In the series, six of Ireland’s foremost poets and spoken word artists speak about their work, and perform a poem inspired by a particular soundscape in a unique location.
Listen to the second episode, featuring Dave Lordan, above.
In the latest episode, Órfhlaith Foyle performs the poem In A Dead Town Where I Once Lived, especially composed for the Reverberations series. It is set in the poet’s grandmother’s sweet shop and at her grandfather’s farm, where Órfhlaith spent some years of her childhood. The poem explores sounds and memories that are still alive for Órfhlaith although her grandparents are now dead, the shop is defunct and the farm has been parceled up over the years, with most of its acres sold off.
The poem was recorded on location in and around Athlone town in Co. Westmeath, and in the last field of her grandfather’s farm in Ballykeeran. Órfhlaith discusses how the relationship with her grandparents, their lives and their work informed her own love for the imagination and story, and what writing means to her - how necessary it is to her life, and how art is necessary no matter what.
Órfhlaith Foyle was born in Africa to Irish parents and now lives in Galway. Her first novel Belios was published by The Lilliput Press. Her first full poetry collection Red Riding Hood’s Dilemma was short-listed for the Rupert and Eithne Strong Award in 2011. Arlen House published Foyle’s debut short fiction, Somewhere in Minnesota, in 2011 and its title story first appeared in Faber and Faber’s New Irish Short Stories (2011), edited by Joseph O’Connor. Foyle’s second short fiction collection Clemency Browne Dreams of Gin (Arlen House 2014) was chosen as one of the Irish Times books of the year. Her work has been published in The Dublin Review, The Wales Arts Review, The Manchester Review, and The Stinging Fly.
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Upcoming episodes of Reverberations include the poets Paul Casey, Sarah Clancy and John Cummins.
Reverberations, Monday 23rd October at 6pm - find out more about the series here.
