Poetry as Commemoration is a major project that aims to work with poets and communities across Ireland to deepen our collective understanding of the past.

Poetry as Commemoration is a major project running over two years that aims to work with poets and communities across the island of Ireland to deepen our collective understanding of the past.

An initiative of the Irish Poetry Reading Archive at UCD, the project is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, under the Decade of Centenaries 2012-2023 programme.

Two of the organisers of the project, Catherine Wilsdon and Evelyn Flanagan, join presenter Olivia O'Leary in studio to explain more about the background to the project. We dip into a creative writing workshop for 6th class pupils from St Fiacc's National School in Carlow, facilitated by children’s writer Caroline Busher, and we hear a new poem by Martina Evans, one of ten commissioned as part of the Project. Martina's poem is inspired by the memoirs of Máire Comerford.

Photo: Caroline Busher & Olivia O'Leary