The Gallery Press: Poetry & Drama from Ireland

16/09/2025

Culture Night 2025 takes place on Friday, 19th September and will light up towns and cities across Ireland with a vibrant celebration of the arts. Poetry and drama take centre stage this year, with pop-up performances, open mic nights, street theatre, and intimate readings in unexpected venues. From contemporary verse to classic Irish plays, audiences can experience the power of words brought to life. While poetry and drama shine, Culture Night embraces all genres— music, dance, visual arts, heritage, film, and more — offering something for everyone in a truly nationwide celebration of creativity.

A few events taking place are:

The Boy: A Two-Play Theatrical Event - world première, The Abbey Theatre, Dublin
Written by Marina Carr and directed by Caitríona McLaughlin, ‘The Boy: A Two-Play Theatrical Event’ brings a contemporary Irish lens to the pain and beauty of Sophocles’ Theban trilogy of Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone. This is a major world premiere of two new plays which will run back-to-back for the full epic story on Ireland’s national stage this Culture Night.

Like to Write Recital, Kilmallock Library, Limerick
Reading of 'A Necklace of Wrens' by Michael Hartnett with soprano and music educator Tríona Walsh who will be performing a short concert of songs connected to literature, poetry, books, and the moon.

Snag Notes, Clonakilty Community Arts Centre
Back for its third year in 2025, Snag Notes will present readings by a selection of published poets including Molly Twomey along with performances by local jazz musicians. Like in previous editions, the Irish language will have a strong presence, as will poetry in translation — creating a rich, cross-cultural experience for the local community.
Ar ais don tríú bliain i 2025, beidh Snag Notes ag cur léachtaí ar fáil ó rogha de dhíonaithe filíochta atá foilsithe, lena n-áirítear Molly Twomey, chomh maith le hionchoirí ó cheoltóirí jazz áitiúla. Mar a bhí i leaganacha roimhe seo, beidh láithreacht láidir ag an nGaeilge, mar atá filíocht i dtiríniú—ag cruthú taithí shaibhir, tras-chultúrtha don phobail áitiúil.

For further information about these events and many more visit https://culturenight.ie

16/09/2025

Reviews of States by Ciaran Berry and Infinity Pool by Vona Groarke in the current issue of Poetry Ireland Review.

https://www.poetryireland.ie/publications/poetry-ireland-review/current-issue/

Poetry Ireland / Éigse Éireann

16/09/2025

Home Again - A Celebration of Gerald Dawe (1952 - 2024)

Presented by Poetry Ireland in association with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council Arts Office

Sunday 21st September, 7.30 p.m.

The Studio - dlr LexIcon, Dún Laoghaire

Tickets: €15

Hosted by journalist and broadcaster Dearbhail McDonald, readers include Gerard Smyth, Leontia Flynn, Iggy McGovern, Eleanor Methven, Owen Roe, Alice Kinsella, Claire Cunningham, Florence Impens and Melatu Ochie Okorie with music by Eleanor Shanley and Conor Linnie. Photo by Bobbie Hanvey.

15/09/2025

Join Kevin Graham and Molly Twomey for a Gallery Goes reading at this year's Clifden Arts Festival on Sunday 21st September at 4.00pm in the Station House Hotel.

They will read from their second collections, Time's Guest (Kevin Graham) and Chic to be Sad (Molly Twomey), both published this year.

Tickets: €10 are available from
https://clifdenartsfestival.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/1173668950

Kevin and Molly represent a vibrant new generation of Irish poets – bringing fresh voices, keen observation and emotional resonance to contemporary poetry.

15/09/2025

Listen back to Molly Twomey and Kevin Graham read from their new collections on Radio 1's Poetry People.

Featuring poets heading to Clifden for the country's longest-running community arts festival - Molly Twomey, Eilish Martin, and Kevin Graham.

15/09/2025

Photos of Professor Vona Groarke at an appointment ceremony for her new role as The Ireland Chair of Poetry, which took place in the National Concert Hall, Dublin, Ireland last week.

Vona Groarke will be the tenth Ireland Professor of Poetry, and her tenure will run from September 2025 to November 2028.

15/09/2025

Join Poetry Ireland / Éigse Éireann for a heartfelt tribute to the life and work of Gerald Dawe, a celebration filled with poetry and music.

Sunday, 21st September 7:30pm
The Studio, LexIcon Library and Cultural Centre

Hosted by journalist and broadcaster Dearbhail McDonald, readers include Gerry Smyth, Leontia Flynn, Iggy McGovern, Eleanor Methven, Owen Roe, Alice Kinsella, Claire Cunningham, Florence Impens and Melatu Ochie Okorie with music by Eleanor Shanley and Conor Linnie.

Presented by Poetry Ireland in association with Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council.

Tickets €15 via Eventbrite
https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/home-again-a-celebration-of-gerald-dawe-1952-2024-tickets-1649878764799?aff=oddtdtcreator&mc_cid=f47d438519&mc_eid=b855337a93

14/09/2025

'Love' by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin from her New Selected Poems which was published on September 4th.⁠
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Among the remarkable characteristics of Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin’s poetry is its consistent excellence over nearly sixty years. Certain poems have entered the canon of Irish poetry. Her publishing career has been embellished with awards and honours at home and around the world. New Selected Poems represents generously each of her ten collections and culminates in a series of powerful new poems confirming that she is, simply, one of the finest poets at work today.⁠
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New Selected Poems is available from all good bookshops or online from The Gallery Press:
https://gallerypress.com/product/new-selected-poems-1966-2025/
⁠

13/09/2025

Remember to apply for our Online Poetry Workshops. Deadline is Monday 15 September 2025.

These courses, for Emerging Writers, will provide an ideal platform for participants to explore the creative process of writing under the guiding eye of an experienced, published poet in the company of a community of similar writers. Attention will also be paid to the procedures toward publication in magazine and book form.

We invite submissions from writers of all backgrounds and particularly encourage and welcome underrepresented voices. Application is open to Irish poets (resident anywhere) and to poets currently resident in Ireland.

Each workshop is made up of four one-and-a-half-hour sessions which will take place once a week. A fee of €40.00* for your chosen workshop will be payable when a place has been offered and you have accepted the offer. Fees must be paid in full within three days of acceptance.

Total workshop fee is €40.00 for all four sessions. (*Concessions available to unwaged/low income - please contact us).

For more details and to apply visit: https://gallerypress.com/news/gallery-goes-workshopping/

We look forward to reading your submissions.

12/09/2025

Listen in to RTÉ Radio 1 's Poetry People with Rachael Hegarty at 7pm this Sunday, 14 September, where you'll hear Molly Twomey and Kevin Graham read from their new collections.

Chic to be Sad - Molly Twomey
Framed between work that centres on a fire in her family home Chic to be Sad displays an even wider range than her debut — from ‘My Brother’s Friends Draw Dicks’, ‘The Mechanic Speaks to My Boyfriend Over My Head’ and ‘Why We Don’t Have Kids’ it reaches to the Guggenheim Museum in Venice and considerations of art. There’s a constant sense of the aftermath of illness and the poems never shy from physical and emotional vulnerability. Brave in its honesty and directness, Chic to be Sad confirms a special gift and presence in Irish poetry before reaching its wise conclusion: ‘There is so much to know, / so much I want you to hear.’

Kevin Graham - Time’s Guest
Many of the poems in Kevin Graham’s second collection find themselves outdoors — in woods, along the coast, down alleyways — by turns praising the natural world and mourning its evidential ruin. Rooted in the everyday and the otherworldly — both formal and free — these are poems that yearn for company and to be read and re-read.

12/09/2025

We delight in the selection of Vona Groarke as The Ireland Chair of Poetry.

President Michael D. Higgins has marked the appointment of Vona Groarke as the tenth Ireland Professor of Poetry at an event at Áras an Uachtaráin.

President Higgins said: “In accepting this appointment, Vona Groarke joins a distinguished line of poets who have held this most prestigious of posts, each making their own profound contribution to the role and, in so doing, enriching the cultural and imaginative life of our nation.

“Born in Mostrim, Co Longford, Vona has been one of the most compelling poetic voices of her generation. Through her 15 books, including nine collections of poetry, from ‘Shale’ in 1994 to ‘Infinity Pool’ in 2025, and her wonderful story ‘Hereafter: The Telling Life of Ellen O’Hara’ – a complex dialogue with her late grandmother’s life as an immigrant in New York – she has shaped a body of work remarkable for its lyric beauty and its acute and attentive gaze upon the world around us.

Each of these collections has marked a deepening and widening of her work, at once intimate and expansive, attentive to the smallest details of daily life yet alive to the largest questions of history, identity and belonging.

“Vona’s work as a translator has also been of immense value, renewing the voices of earlier times for a new generation of readers. Her versions of ‘Lament for Art O’Leary’ (Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire) and ‘The Lament of the Hag of Beare’ have carried into our own moment the profound sorrow and wisdom of the past, ensuring that our great poetic inheritance continues to live and speak.

“Alongside this remarkable body of creative work, Vona has been tireless in her service to the wider community of poetry. An esteemed member of Aosdána since 2010, Vona has held many important roles, including Senior Lecturer in Poetry at the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester, Poet in Residence with the Yeats Society in Sligo, and Writer in Residence at St John’s College, Cambridge. In all of these roles she has embodied that essential generosity of the poet: a willingness not only to give her own voice, but to foster and encourage the voices of others.

“In Vona’s poems, with their elegance and clarity, we are witness to a rigour of form, precision and resonance of language, and complexity of feeling. She will, I know, bring to the Professorship of Poetry, her extraordinary artistry, along with her intellectual curiosity and profound commitment to the craft of poetry.”

Groarke’s term as Ireland Professor of Poetry runs till November 2028, taking over from the previous holder Prof Paul Muldoon.
During their tenure the Ireland Professor of Poetry is associated for one year with each of the three universities and resides for a period of approximately eight weeks at each. While in residence, the poet engages with students through a series of workshops and readings, performs outreach work and makes one formal presentation, usually in the form of a lecture.

— Martin Doyle, The Irish Times

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/2025/09/12/caoilinn-hughes-on-bbc-short-story-award-shortlist/