Announcements
September 2023 events
Award-winning Irish poets Catherine Phil MacCarthy Jane Clarke, and Katie Donovan will travel to the US to give a series of poetry readings in Washington DC, Villanova and Princeton in September, supported by Culture Ireland:
St. John’s Church, Lafayette Square, Washington DC, Sunday, 24 September, at 10.00 h: “Wonders & Realities” — how poetry helps us pay attention to the wonders and realities of our threatened world.
Mount Pleasant Library, Washington DC, Sunday 24 September at 15.00: Reading and Discussion of poems that evoke the role of women in a changing Ireland; the importance of place, history and myth in moulding identity.
Villanova University, Center for Irish Studies, Philadelphia, Monday, 25th September, Speaker’s Corner, Falvey Library, at 5:00 p.m.: “Wonders & Realities” — how poetry helps us pay attention to the wonders and realities of our threatened world (link to the Center’s current newsletter — see page 4).
Princeton: Pierce Hall, Trinity Episcopal Church, in Princeton, NJ, at 16.00.
The poems reflect on a sense of place: a rural childhood and upbringing, a coming to womanhood. They consider the notion that the imagination is rooted in a ground, a geography, a place Seamus Heaney referred to as an ‘imaginative nest’. They consider our relationship to the world around us, and to the changing environment.
October 2023 events
Readings
Una Ni Cheallaigh, Nessa O’Mahony, and Catherine Phil MacCarthy
Books Upstairs, Sunday, October 8th, 2.30 p.m. (link).
ArtNetdlr’s 2021 Biennale Collaborative Project
Catherine Phil MacCarthy/Yvonne Pettitt
Their collaborative piece on Metamorphosis concerns poems by MacCarthy relating to the theme, some already written and published, and Pettitt’s visual response to them working from sketches to oil on panel.
Click this link for the Catalog for the ArtNetdlr’s 2021 Biennale Collaborative Project
7 Questions on Poetry
In a blog published on the Dedalus Press website in November 2021, Catherine Phil MacCarthy responded to a series of questions on poetry. You can read her answers here.
Irish Poetry Reading Archive
The Irish Poetry Reading Archive, part of the UCD Special Collections, has released a number of readings by Catherine Phil MacCarthy of her poems. These readings are now available on the Archive’s YouTube channel. Click on the links below to access Phil reading the following poems:
- S-I-N-G-E-R
- Under My Skin
- Turning South
- The First Rod: Mackerel at Inis Oírr
- Sweet Afton
- Now I See Them Everywhere
- Limbo
- Helium
Events
Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival 2022
Catherine Phil MacCarthy was invited to participate in the Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival, which was held in October 21-23, 2022, in New South Wales, Australia. Presented by Varuna, the National Writers’ House, the Festival, last held in August 2019, aimed to elevate and inspire readers to new levels of curiosity and intrigue whilst celebrating the unique qualities of Australia’s literary landscape. The Festival featured over 40 sessions, 80 writers, 11 workshops and 5 special events.
Along with US poet Rowan Ricardo Phillips, Catherine discussed craft, form and creativity with poet and critic Felicity Plunkett.
Catherine Phil MacCarthy in The Poetry Weekender
Catherine along with fellow poets Rachel Long and Stephen Sexton took part in The Poetry Weekender organised by dlr Poet in Residence Jessica Traynor and Poetry Ireland in the dlr Lexicon/dlr Pavilion Theatre on 17-18 September 2022. The event which was presented by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council also featured the singer-songwriter Maija Sofia.
Catherine Phil MacCarthy on RTE’s Poetry Programme
Catherine Phil MacCarthy and fellow poet, Mary O’Donnell, were guests on Olivia O’Leary’s Poetry Programme on RTE Radio 1 on Sunday, 1 December 2019. You can hear a recording of their conversation here (the conversation with Catherine begins around the 0.22 minute mark):
Catherine Phil MacCarthy on RTE Radio 1’s Poetry Programme (1 December 2019)
Launch of “Daughters of the House”
On May 14, 2019, Dedalus Press in association with Poetry Ireland presented a reading to celebrate the publication of two new poetry titles, Daughters of the House by Catherine Phil MacCarthy, and The End of the World by Patrick Deeley. Catherine’s book was launched by Sheila Pratschke, former Director of the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris and Chairperson of the Arts Council.
Recent readings
2019 readings
Since the publication of Daughters of the House, Catherine Phil MacCarthy has participated in several readings:
- Lexicon Library, Dun Laoghaire (September);
- Dublin Festival of History (October) who recorded the poems along with a historian giving context (link);
- Dublin Books Festival (November).
Reading at the University of St. Thomas, Minnesota
On April 11, 2014, Catherine Phil MacCarthy read from her work at the John Roach Center Auditorium, University of St Thomas, St Paul.
The image below is a poster published by the University of St. Thomas Centre for Irish Studies and the Friends of St. Paul Public Library to publicise the reading and also Catherine’s discussion with Matt Rathmussen (see below).
Click the image for a larger version of the poster.
Launch of “The Invisible Threshold”
The launch of Catherine Phil MacCarthy’s fourth collection of poems, The Invisible Threshold, took place in the Irish Writers Centre, Dublin 1, on Tuesday, 18 September, 2012.
Dedalus Press, the publisher of The Invisible Threshold, also were launching two other poetry collections, A Gather of Shadow by Mark Roper and The Next Life by Pat Boran. The latter in addition to his work as a poet and broadcaster also runs Dedalus Press. All three books were introduced by Joseph Woods, poet and Director of Poetry Ireland.
Pictured here are, from left to right, Pat Boran, Catherine Phil MacCarthy and Mark Roper at the Irish Writers Centre.
Past readings
Literary evening in Limerick Writers’ Centre
Dominic Taylor and Limerick Writers’ Centre kicked off a new series of readings at Limerick City Library, The Granary, Michael Street, on February 22, 2018.
