All Blogposts

  • My poem about Stephen Lawrence

    My poem about Stephen Lawrence

    POST UPDATED 22 APRIL 2024 – STEPHEN LAWRENCE DAY I first shared this poem over ten years ago when it was first published at The Morning Star.  Since then, it’s been shared many times and republished in many different places including in my first poetry book. It’s available to read on my Instagram. The original Read more

  • A postcard from Bellaghy.

    A postcard from Bellaghy.

    Originally posted on Rebecca Gethin: In 2010 we set off on a poetic pilgrimage to Bellaghy in Co  Derry, NI, the birthplace and now the burial place of Seamus Heaney, his ‘place of clear water’. To get there from our holiday house on the Antrim coast, we had to pass this avenue of trees.  It felt… Read more

  • Five of the best essays on the late, great Seamus Heaney

    Five of the best essays on the late, great Seamus Heaney

    Originally posted on Irish Writing Blog: Seamus Heaney (Photo: Jon Parker Lee) There has been no shortage of published work on Seamus Heaney over the last few days. Here are some of the best I’ve read – please feel free to let me know of any other must-read reflections on the life, work and legacy… Read more

  • Book Review: The Night My Sister Went to Hollywood by Hilda Sheehan

    I seem to be reading more and more recently, either poems and articles online or blog posts or poetry collections and poetry magazines.  But I don’t feel that I’m properly reading anything, not really absorbing the words, as if my head is just too busy and full to take very much in – and then Read more

  • A shortlist, a tumblr and let’s accidentally connect!

    A shortlist, a tumblr and let’s accidentally connect!

    My biggest news is that I was shortlisted for The Rialto/Poetry School Poetry Editor Development Programme but I wasn’t successful.    In a case of unfortunate timing, the interviews were scheduled to take place bang in the middle of my family holiday in western France so my ‘meeting’ with Michael Mackmin (Editor at The Rialto) and Read more

  • Je m’appelle Joséphine

    Je m’appelle Joséphine

    …and other thoughts from when I was abroad…. I’m just back from a happy week in western Brittany with my family.  I really enjoy seeing my name emblazoned on mugs, bowls, key rings and other such items when I’m in France,  the extra accent on the first ‘e’ is the icing on le gâteau, and, frankly, Read more