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| Attending the opening night of the Cuisle Limerick International Poetry Festival in the Red Hen were poets, John Davis, Sam Riviere and Tim Cunningham. Picture: Alan Place. |
Audiences from Ireland, UK, Slovenia, and Europe participated in and attended the 20th annual Cuisle Limerick City International Poetry Festival, which took place in various venues throughout Limerick City over the past five days.
Among Ireland’s foremost annual poetry festivals, the event concluded last night having featured a host of leading Irish poets including Geraldine Mitchell, Conor O'Callaghan, Tom French, Dr. Bridget Wallace, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Macdara Woods, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill and Paddy Bushe.
Cuisle also included newer names like Edward O’Dwyer and Caleb Brennan while special guests John Davies and Sam Riviere from the UK were joined by celebrated European poets Iztok Osojnik and Veronika Dintinjana for the festival.
Events included lunchtime and evening readings, writing workshops for schools, an open mic night, and the launch of the annual anthology of poetry The Stony Thursday Book, which this year is edited by Peter Sirr. Tim Cunningham also launched his new collection of poetry 'Almost Memories', published by Revival Press
The festival featured special tributes to the poetry of Samuel Beckett including a reading by the Fourfront Poets of a selection of Beckett poems and a lecture, entitled 'The Poetry Of Samuel Beckett', by eminent Joyce and Beckett scholar Gerry Dukes. The lecture was specially commissioned for Cuisle. Internationally acclaimed actor and interpreter of Becketts work, Barry McGovern devised an original and unique performance of Beckett’ poetry for stage.
Commenting on the festival, Cuisle co-founder and Committee member Paul Sweeney said: “Now in its 20th year, Cuisle has helped to establish Limerick a centre for poetry not only in this country, but throughout Europe and beyond. We are delighted that this year's festival, which coincided with Limerick City of Culture 2014, once again proved to be extremely popular locally as well as with poetry enthusiasts from elsewhere throughout Ireland and overseas."
"I want to acknowledge my hard working colleagues on the Cuisle Committee, namely Co-Founder Mark Whelan, Ciaran O'Driscoll, Edward O'Dwyer and Bertha McCullagh, with special thanks to Robin Parmar, Lyric FM, The Arts Council and Limerick City of Culture 2014 for providing support and grant aid. The Committee is particularly grateful to Sheila Deegan, Pippa Little and Lizanne Jackman of the Arts Office of Limerick City and County Council for their valuable assistance," added Mr. Sweeney.
Further information is available from www.cuisle.org.
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