Pete Mullineaux lives in Co. Galway and has published four poetry collections, including Session (Salmon 2011) and How to Bake a Planet (Salmon 2016) – “A gem” – Poetry Ireland Review. A New & Selected is due in 2022. He’s been interviewed about his poetry on RTE’s Arena and also had three plays produced by RTE radio. He works as a poetry/drama facilitator: Interdependence Day: Teaching the Sustainable Development Goals through Drama for All Ages was published by Afri (Action from Ireland) in 2021. His debut novel Jules & Rom: Sci-fi meets Shakespeare – was released in paperback in April 2021 following an ebook version in 2020. Website: petemullineauxwriter.com
Cork based Spoken Word Artist and Poet, Stanley Notte has today (12 May 2021) released a unique piece of spoken word reflecting on living with the Covid-19 pandemic. His prose creation has a special twist, with familiar Cork language and delivered over a version of The Specials ‘ Ghost Town’ track. Completely created in Cork, an accompanying video includes the iconic Father Matthew statue as never seen before, incorporates remotely recorded video phone sequences of 22 Cork people, filmed at various Cork locations. The famous Jackie Lennox’s chipper also receives a homage in verse and visuals. The rich mix of haunting voices and music was created with support of singers Taly Murphy and Luna Olivia Avery. Originally imagined as a performance piece with four male voices in mind, Dave O’Connell of De Bunker Studios suggested Stanley perform the piece himself. Using video shot by Brendan Cotter and featuring drone photography by Kieran Walsh of Cobh News, the visuals feature family and friends capturing the essence of tough lockdown in Cork city. Commenting on today’s release, Stanley said : ‘Since the pandemic started, I wanted to create something humorous around living with Covid-19 and try to lighten the heaviness it brought to our lives. Somehow the first anniversary, and the beginning of the end of lockdown, seemed the right time for this reflection. Cork and its rich language means a lot to me, and combining this piece of work with an overlay version of The Specials ‘Ghost Town’ matches the sense and mood beautifully. It’s ‘Cork Boi.’ It’s ‘Covid Boi.’’ Stanley added : ‘Creating and recording with all the restrictions presented additional challenges. Everyone’s commitment, remote recordings and strict adherence to guidelines really brought out Cork innovation at its best. The release includes a full audio and accompanying video of 4 mins 31 secs. The ‘Cork, Boi! Nothing But A Ghost Town’ video and audio will be available from 12th May 2021 on www.stannottecreations.ie https://www.facebook.com/stannottecre…https://www.instagram.com/stannottecr…
Suzanne Power is an author, editor and creative mentor who has had many lives, all of which involve writing and belief in the transformative power of stories.
An award winning author of novels, poetry, creative non-fiction and short stories, her central themes concern the powerful presence of the silent majority, in memory, history and the moment. This applies to both fiction and non-fiction. Her books have been published worldwide. She founded and was features editor of a national newspaper, travelled as a need, lived in her car, was an award winning journalist and columnist, a broadcaster, producer and researcher in Ireland and the UK.
Along with her own writing, she founded and delivered an Irish university’s creative writing programme. Her storytelling instincts convinced her to empower as well as edit and mentor writers. Her practice as a writing therapist confirms her ethos that encouragement is the only true criticism. Her approach fosters authors from all walks of life to publication, from international bestsellers to writers of titles of local importance and contribution. All lives change radically through stories.
A natural nomad, she gave two decades to raising and empowering her two sons on creative paths. She and her husband, a teacher of those with severe and challenging behaviour, anticipate their next house will have wheels.
Nessa O’Mahony was born in Dublin and lives there. She won the National Women’s Poetry Competition and was shortlisted for the Patrick Kavanagh Prize and Hennessy Literature Awards. She is the recipient of three literature bursaries from the Arts Council of Ireland, the most recent being in 2018. She has a PhD in Creative Writing from Bangor University and teaches with the Open University and the American College in Dublin. She has published five books of poetry – Bar Talk, (1999), Trapping a Ghost (2005), In Sight of Home (2009) and Her Father’s Daughter (2014). The Hollow Woman on the Island was published by Salmon Poetry in May 2019. Her first work of historic crime fiction, The Branchman, was published by Arlen House in 2018.
Details of her latest poetry collection, The Hollow Woman on the Island, can be found here: https://www.salmonpoetry.com/details.php?ID=509&a=281
Nessa O’Mahony was born in Dublin and lives there. She is the recipient of three literature bursaries from the Arts Council of Ireland, the most recent being in 2018. She has published five books of poetry – Bar Talk, (1999), Trapping a Ghost (2005), In Sight of Home (2009) and Her Father’s Daughter (2014). The Hollow Woman on the Island was published by Salmon Poetry in May 2019. Details of her latest poetry collection, The Hollow Woman on the Island, can be found here: https://www.salmonpoetry.com/details.php?ID=509&a=281
A.M. Cousins’ poems can be found in The Stinging Fly, Poetry Ireland Review and poethead.com. Her poem Not my Michael Furey won the FISH Poetry Prize in 2019 and her work was shortlisted in The Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Competition 2015, 2016 and 2019. She is a regular contributor to Sunday Miscellany on RTE Radio 1. Her first collection of poetry, REDRESS, was published by Revival Press in March 2021. Anne lives in Wexford Town.
Paul Kestell reflects on a year of lockdown Speakeasy performances, celebrates the much missed Angela Byrne, and reads his new poem ‘Empty House’ for us.
Rude Judes rings through from Cobh with more saucy fun in verse for this month’s Speakeasy.
Rude Judes (aka Judith Coffey) scribbled ditties for years. From her childhood in Sydney, Australia, to teenage years in Crosshaven, then those impressionable London years in her 20s-30s until she returned home to Ireland for Millenium. Now a resident in the harbour town of Cobh she writes observational witticisms on life – from the perspective of middle age Girls who still want to have fun.
A serial volunteer within the Arts in Cork, she supported her friends at the inaugural “Gab – Mixed Tape Night” at Coughlan’s Bar, June 2016 and by October that year following encouragement to read a few of her own in public for the first time, is now a regular on the Gab Set List. As part of “The Gab” she has taken part in Cork’s Harbour Festival 2019, Life Long Learning Festival, World Story Telling Day and Storytellers of Ireland.
She has hosted the “Crosstown Drift Bus” on behalf of The Good Room for Cork Midsummer Festival 2017-2019, reading her poems to a captive audience between stops. Read live at “Peacock Parlour” on four occasions, three held at The Kino, Cork and a “Disgraceful Cabaret“ remotely. A few past sessions at the “Yarn Spinners” Cork and not forgetting “Speakeasy” sessions in 2019. Whenever she can she reads at “Coliemore The Artists House”, Cobh. In 2019, Rude Judes both performed her own poems and was one of the judges of the first poetry competition at the Cobh Readers and Writers Festival.
Rude Judes is begging for Lockdown to end – so she can get back to observing you all and writing about it.
James Lawless is an Irish poet and novelist. His awards, include the Scintilla Welsh Open Poetry Competition, the WOW award, the Cecil Day Lewis Award, the Sunday Tribune/Hennessy and Willesden Herald award nominations, and he was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize for short stories (2014) and was an award winner in the Colm Tóibín Short Story Awards (2020). He is the author of five novels, a poetry collection, a children’s collection of stories and a study of modern poetry for which he received an Irish arts bursary. He is an experienced workshop facilitator, a member the Irish Writers Union and of Poetry Ireland’s Writers in Schools scheme, and he is a book reviewer for The Irish Examiner and Sunday Independent. His works have been translated into several languages at https://bit.ly/3mB6yVv and are on audio at https://adbl.co/2HeCuOZ or https://adbl.co/3iR0fL9 Born in Dublin, he divides his time between County Kildare and West Cork; https://jameslawless.net
Terry McDonagh, www.terry-mcdonagh.com poet, translator and dramatist has published eleven poetry collections, bilingual letters (German English), drama, prose and writing for children. He taught creative writing at Hamburg University and facilitates in schools, colleges and at literary festivals in Europe, Asia and Australia. His poetry has been published worldwide and translated into German and Indonesian. Recently included in Poetry File on RTE Lyric Fm. A two-part radio documentary, ‘Two Notes for Home’, on Terry McDonagh, the modern bard of Cill Aodáin, compiled by Werner Lewon, has just been released. His most recent poetry collection, ‘Fourth Floor Flat’ – Arlen House 2018. He’s completing a collection, ‘Two Notes for Home’. He returned to live in his native Mayo in 2020.
