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On today’s show, the last of 2024, we talk to Keith Payne about his recent  boat building and poem writing project. Currachs and naomhógs are among the only sea craft built upside down, and the expertise dates back generations. Keith learned all of this and a. lot more when he found himself working on a Dunfanaghy currach over 16 weeks. He was Cork City Library eco-poet in residence from 2022 to 2023 when he was drawn to the work of Meitheal Mara. He learned about carpenters' marks and pigtails and how to row with Naomhóga Chorcaí. His latest work, Building the Boat, records his experiences with Meitheal Mara in verse, and it has just been published by Badly Made Books. He also talks to us about Whales and Whales, his recent translations of a powerful Galician poet, Luisa Castro.

The second half of today’s show is a look back at some highlights from our podcast in 2024, with contributions from Michael Agustin, Dermot Bolger, Kerry Hardie, Aoife Lyall, Victoria Kennefick, Mary Costello, Paul Muldoon, Neil Astley, Gormfhlaith Ní Shíocháin Ní Bheoláin, Noel Monahan and Christine Dwyer Hickey.

This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.
Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

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Join us for a lively discussion of some of the best books published this year. At the breakfast table to discuss their poetry and fiction choices are poet Adam Wyeth and novelist Henrietta McKervey. Plenty of stocking filler ideas here, and Peter and Enda also get to mention some of their own favourite books of the year. This is a double espresso and multiple pastry episode, so get that pot on the stove and get the earbuds in!

This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.
Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.

Adam's picks for 2024: Crash Centre by David McLoghlin , All the Good Things You Deserve by Elaine Feeney, High Jump: An Icarus Story by Gustav Parker Hibbett, We Go On by Kerry Hardie 

Honorable Mentions: Four Thousand Keys by Linda McKenna , American Anthem by Kelly Michels , Dismantle by Anne Tannam, Naming Love by Geraldine Mitchell.

Henrietta’s Fiction Choices: Elizabeth Strout, Tell Me Everything, John Boyne, Fire , Christine Dwyer Hickey, Our London Lives , Katja Oskamp, Half Swimmer  , Michael Frayn, Among Others

Books mentioned by Peter: Lesley Chamberlain, Rilke, The Last Inward Man, Pushkin Press, Guillevic, Selected Poems, 1974, tr. by Teo Savory, Salvatore Quasimodo, Debit and Credit, tr. by Jack Bevan, 1972, Richard Zenith, Pessoa: An Experimental Life , Stanley Moss, Goddamed Selected Poems .

Books mentioned by Enda
Deborah Levy,  The Position of Spoons , Samantha Harvey, Orbital,, Grace Wilentz, Harmony (Unfinished), Aifric Mac Aodha, Old Friends,  James Harpur, The Gospel of Gargoyle

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This episode sees us back in Books Upstairs in Dublin’s D’Olier Street again. This time we’ve come for a conversation between Paddy Bushe and poet and academic Ben Keatinge on the occasion of the Dublin launch of The Amergin Step: An Exploration in the Imagination of Iveragh. The book is named after the famous poem that Leabhar Gabhála Éireann or The Book of Invasions tells us was recited by the poet and lawmaker of the Gaelic Milesian people, as he stepped ashore in Kerry after their voyage from Galicia and staked an imaginative claim to the island.  In a book reminiscent of Tim Robinson’s Aran and Connemara explorations Paddy Bushe investigates contemporary and historical literature, folklore, myth, archaeology and placenames are explored by the author at the same time as he explores the mountains, sea and islands of the tip of the Iveragh peninsula to uncover the stories that have animated them from earliest to present times. Coffee time!

This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental music
Goddess of the Sea · Jimena Contreras.

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As we write it is 1002 days since the fullscale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, but over ten years since Putin first seized Crimea and sponsored insurrection in the Donbas. And even longer that he has sought to meddle in Ukrainian affairs. So we thought we would mark those suffering filled days and years by talking to Oksana Maksymchuk whose Still City: Diary of an Invasion, published by Carcanet Press, came out this year. Oksana is also translator and co editor of Words for War: New Poems from Ukraine. We caught up with Oksana at Books Upstairs in Dublin.

This episode is supported by a Project Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental music
Scott Buckley, Emmit Fenn.

Logo by Freya Sirr

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First up on today's show, I chat with Liam Carson, who is back again with another episode of the Irish language Festival, IMRAM.

And we hear from Kelly Michels, whose Forward Prize shortlisted debut collection,  American Anthem, published by Gallery Press this year, focuses on the tragedies both personal and national, of the opioid epidemic and its devastating effects of addiction and of gun violence in America, where the poet grew up. We talk to Kelly about growing up in the U.S., writing about her mother's addiction,  the mass shootings in her home town and her take on the American anthem..

Kelly's Toaster Challenge choice is 'Starlight Scope Myopia' by Yusef Komunyakaa, from his Pulitzer Prize-winning book of selected poems, Neon Vernacular.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental music
Scott Buckley, Emmit Fenn.

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Today's show features conversation and poems from two poets with new collections: Katie Donovan, whose collection May Swim, is published by Bloodaxe Books, and Micheál McCann, whose debut collection Devotion, is published by Gallery Press.

Both poets take on the Toaster Challenge, this time a Toaster Poem Challenge. Micheál' choce is Louise Glück's 'Sunset' from her collection The Wild Iris, while Katie chooses Pascale Petit's ‘Jaguar Girl.’ from Mama Amazonica.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental music
Scott Buckley, Emmit Fenn.

Logo by Freya Sirr

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We're back from the summer break and in conversation with Christine Dwyer Hickey, who was the subject of our very first Books for Breakfast podcast. This time around we're talking to her about her latest novel Our London Lives, just published this week.

We also give ourselves a double Toaster Challenge. Enda talks about Alba de Cespedes' Roman novel Forbidden Notebook, while Peter stays in Rome but goes back 2000 years to the last years of the Republic and the poet Catullus, two of whose poems he pays homage to.  

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental music
Scott Buckley, Emmit Fenn.

Logo by Freya Sirr

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On today's edition, the last before our summer break, we look at  new editions of Poetry Ireland Review and The Stinging Fly. We feature recordings of three poets published in Poetry Ireland Review: Valentine Jones, Patrick Chapman and Shakeema Edwards, and we also feature a poem by Gormfhlaith Ní Shíocháin Ní Bheoláin from The Stinging Fly.  Enda discusses the novels of Tessa Hadley, who also has an. essay in The Stinging Fly, and we travel to Cavan for the launch of Noel Monahan's ninth collection, Journey Upstream, published by Salmon.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental music
Scott Buckley - Filaments
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Artwork by Freya Sirr

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On today's show we interview poet, novelist and publisher of Bloodaxe Books Neil Astley. We talk to Neil about the latest Bloodaxe Books poetry anthology, Soul Feast, poems to stir the mind and feed the spirit, companion volume to 2007's Soul Food.  We also talk about how he got into publishing, what poetry means to him and  some of the discoveries he's made along the way. Two Irish poets in the anthology, Enda Coyle Greene and  Mary O'Donnell , read their contributions.

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental music 
Romance for Piano and Cello by Martijn de Boer (NiGiD) (c) copyright 2015 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial  (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/NiGiD/50238 Ft: AT
Undertow by Scott Buckley | https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
Scott Buckley - Filaments
License: Creative Commons (CC BY 3.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
Music powered by BreakingCopyright: https://breakingcopyright.com
Wanderlust by Scott Buckley | https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com

Artwork by Freya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. 

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Today’s show marks 25 years since the foundation of the Strokestown International Poetry Festival in Co. Roscommon. This year’s festival takes place over the May Bank weekend, May 3 - 5. We spoke to the Director,  Joseph Woods about the festival and his new book, Veld Fires. We also feature poems by Eva Bourke whose Tattoos was published this year, and Patrick Deeley, who reads from his new collection, Keepsake.
We also interview the Welsh poet Tony Curtis , whose new collection is Leaving the Hills. 

Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental music Wanderlust by Scott Buckley | https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com

Artwork by Freya Sirr

To subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. 

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