RTÉ begins its poetry season on RTÉ One on Thursday January 29 at 10.15pm with A Rebel Act, a landmark documentary which looks back at the poems that shaped us as a people and illustrates why poetry is so central to our culture.
"Poets with progress / make no peace or pact: the act of poetry / is a rebel act."
Thus wrote the poet Michael Hartnett back in the 1970s as he embarked on his highly-publicised decision to only write poetry in Irish, although he returned some years later to writing once again in English.
Using Hartnett's quotation as starting point, A Rebel Act offers a whistle-stop tour through the last 1,000 years of Ireland's history as captured by the words of its poets.
From the bards to the newer voices, the documentary demonstrates how Ireland's poets have, from the earliest times, captured the people's response to love, death, plantation, famine, rebellion, civil war, emigration, the Celtic Tiger and the crash.
Contributors include Declan Kiberd, Diarmuid Ferriter, Louis de Paor, Maria Johnston, Theo Dorgan, Paula Meehan, Lucy Collins, Colm Keegan and Sarah Clancy.
A Rebel Act can be seen on Thursday January 29 at 10.15pm on RTÉ One.
On Friday January 30, on RTÉ Radio One's The John Murray Show (9:00am) and later that night on RTÉ One Television's The Works (8:30pm), the 10 poems chosen by an independent jury from the public's nominations will be unveiled for the final stage of RTÉ A Poem for Ireland.
Over 130 poems in all were nominated and the jury whittled that figure down to 10 poems that would meet the criteria set in advance: 10 poems of the past century that, together, tell a story of us as a people over the past 100 years.
