cuisle 2007

Press Release
Cuisle 2007; Limerick City International Poetry Festival
17th – 20th October

2007 marks the eleventh Cuisle Festival in Limerick City, celebrating local, national and international excellence in poetry. The festival will take place from Wednesday 17th to Saturday 20th October with 23 poets from 6 different countries visiting Limerick over 4 days. Limericks’ long association with poetry makes Cuisle the perfect opportunity and place for audiences to extend their experience of poetry during four festival days of convivial discussion readings, book launches and workshops with the leading contemporary poets of our time.

The festival format over the four days includes lunchtime readings, readings for secondary school students, book launches and evening readings.

Some of this years line up of poets include international visiting poets Keith Armstrong (UK), Tom Cunliffe (UK), John Davies (UK), Hugh Dunkerley (UK), Gary Gach (USA), Barbara Korun (Slovenia), Ivica Prtenjaca (Slovakia), Jackie Willis (UK). Irish poets of international importance include Michael O’Siadhail, Michael Longley, Desmond O’Grady, Gabriel Fitzmaurice, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Seán Lysaght, Cathal Ó Searcaigh, Paddy Bushe and Theo Dorgan.

Five book launches will take place during the festival, each title an exciting new presence in the literary Irish writing scene; two journals of poetry (i) REVIVAL No. 5, and (ii) The Stony Thursday Book. Fifty Years 1957-2007 by Knute Skinner, and Twenty One Sonnets by Gabriel Fitzmaurice, both published by Salmon Poetry. Desmond O’Grady’s book My Alexandria will also be launched.

To celebrate the achievements of Limerick poets, a series of lunchtime (1pm) readings at Isaacs in O’Connell Street will celebrate the work of Teri Murray, Gerard Sheehy, Noel Harrington and Dominic Taylor.

The annual Cuisle Debate will take place on Saturday 20th at 3pm. The title of this year’s debate is ‘Can Poetry Make Things Happen?’ Paul Muldoon wrote “for poetry can make things happen, not only can, but must …..” Seamus Heaney in his Nobel lecture of 1995 acknowledges the power of poetry - “…..: the power to persuade that vulnerable part of our consciousness of its rightness in spite of the evidence of wrongness all around it, the power to remind us that we are hunters and gatherers of values, that our very solitudes and distresses are creditable ….”. Cuisle will bring together and harness all the energies of the poets to rediscover the power and the pulse of poetry.

Limerick City Gallery of Art and Limerick City Library will host workshops relating to poetry during the festival, including Bosca Filíocht (Poetry Box) where each child will be asked to pick a verse from a descriptive poem and to illustrate that poem with the help of artists Suzannah O’Reilly and Fiona Quill. There is also an opportunity for children to be part of a poetry master-class during the festival, places are limited, booking is essential.

For further information on all our events during the Cuisle Poetry Festival contact by email artsoffice@limerickcity.ie or call into Belltable Arts Centre for a festival brochure and book tickets on 061 319866.


This festival is funded by The Arts Council, Limerick City Council, Failte Ireland, Poetry Ireland and the Belltable Arts Centre