Join us in the garden (weather permitting) for an afternoon of poetry and music in memory of Michael Longley, introduced by Michael Kinsella.
Poems both by Michael, and inspired by his work, will be read by Maureen Boyle and Tim Dwyer. Michael also loved music, and harpist Ursula Burns will accompany the poetry readings.
Maureen Boyle is the author of three books of poetry. The most recent, ‘The Last Spring of the World’ was published in June 2022 by Arlen House, Dublin. She has received various awards including the Fish Short Memoir Prize, The Strokestown International Poetry Prize, the Irish Chair of Poetry Prize and Inaugural Travel Bursary. She is a poetry and memoir mentor with the Irish Writers’ Centre and lives in Belfast.
Tim Dwyer was raised in Brooklyn, NY, by Irish immigrant parents, worked as a clinical psychologist in New York prisons, and now lives in Bangor, Northern Ireland. Living with cancer for more than a decade has informed his work. Many of his poems have been shortlisted and have appeared in respected journals and anthologies in Ireland, UK and the U.S. His chapbook, Smithy Of Our Longings was published by Lapwing in 2015.
Accepting The Call, Tim Dwyer’s debut full collection, has won the Templar Poetry Straid Collection Award and will be published in April 2025. It follows a life transition from Brooklyn of the 1960s to Northern Ireland of the 21st century- a reverse migration from the Irish diaspora. There is a fluidity of times and places, between the living and the dead, health and illness, personal and family loss. It explores nature in urban landscapes, poets and music, recurring images and metaphors, resilience, humour and unexpected renewals. The lyrical and natural voice of these poems invites the reader’s own reflections.
As "The Dangerous Harpist" Ursula Burns has been
smashing the cultural stereotypical image of the harp for the last 30 years taking it on a journey through Songwriting, Composition, Theatre, Circus, Comedy and Performance. Ursula has taken
her music around the world and also played at the Royal Albert Hall, Apollo, Palladium and Lyric Hammersmith.
Dr Michael Kinsella read English Literature at The University of York. He has been an adviser on a number of literary projects and currently is giving a series of talks on poetry and psychoanalysis.
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