News

The first postings on our new website will appear next week.

Have been asked to do judge at the forthcoming talent competition in Navan on Saturday 13th August and then of course also doing Judge at the LM/FM competition which is a bit ironic seeing that my experience of Judges is fairly traumatic

Our Monthly Meeting on Thursday 4th August
Heritage Day Reading on Sunday 28st  August


Famine Trilogy not exactly a bestseller with less that 80 copies gone so far, still 20 copies left in the Post Office out of 30 left in.

No guarantee at this stage that 'Haunted Meath' will be on the shelves for Halloween.  I have no say in the matter

Getting ready now to hand back the Poet of Fingal Trophy for the third time

Glenstal Abbey

Now that my ghost book is finished and with the publishers 'The History Press' its back to writing poetry again and the first subject that I'm going to tackle  in a result of a visit to Glenstal Abbey last week.

It was late July as i watched the swallows
Skimming the sloping lawns and paths

Meath Writer's Circle

The Next meeting of the Meath Writer's Circle will take place in the Trim Castle Hotel on Thursday 4th August at 7.30pm

Book Sales

Although not officially on sale until Friday next  Famine Trilogy is making something of a splash with sales coming from the most unusual sources.  Two visitors early today one from Senegal and one from California were quite happy to get copies.  Noel Moore, originally from Delvin and now working in Senegal, and Kathleen Collins, originally from Tipperary and now living in California were among the first to get a copy.  Kathleen was in Trim to get her copy of the new church CD when she heard about Famine Trilogy.   One of the very first people to get a copy was Joe Wylie from Boston I actually met Joe during a poetry reading I was giving in Lynn Mass. in 2007 and have been friends with him ever since.
From Friday morning posters for the publication will begin to appear and this should help with sales

Creative Writing Competition

 Just learned that i am to be one of the judges in the LM/FM Creative Writing competition the details of which are published here

 

DETAILS

4 categories:

- Short stories (max: 2,500 words)- adults
- Short stories (max: 2,500 words)- under 16s
- Poetry - adults
- Poetry - under 16s

PRIZE DETAILS

The winners and 9 runners-up from each category will have their work published in the LMFM Christmas Anthology..

HOW TO ENTER

ALL ENTRIES MUST BE RECEIVED BY 10th OCTOBER 2011 - The judging panel, chaired by May Toal, includes writer Tommy Murray, LMFM's Gerry Kelly, and local librarians. - Entry to the competition is FREE. - You may submit as many entries as you wish - the material must not have appeared in any previous printed anthology. - For all enquiries, please email competitions@thevarsitypress.com - Please email your entries to competitions@thevarsitypress.com, or mail entries to Mona Daly, LMFM Competition, 10 Kilgar, Jocelyn Street, Dundalk.

Famine Trilogy

                                                  Famine Trilogy now available at 5euro
A conjectural  look at one of the great disasters in the history of Ireland.  This publication  is in presentation format  is a limited edition beautifully bound and lavishly illustrated.  It also contains some new poetry

Two New Books

For those who ordered their copies of Famine Trilogy at 5 euro I am delighted to announce that copies of the book will be delivered from next Wednesday.  Just got a glimpse of the proofs and I am delighted with the quality and layout.  Famine Trilogy  is in  presentation  format, will be a limited edition

'Haunted Meath' which is a much larger book has three offers from publishers and I have to make a decision by Monday next.  There are over three hundred orders for this book and the names of the three publishers are (Nonsuch, The History Press.)  (Shackleton)  and a private individual .   At the moment it is between  The History Press and Shackleton.

There will be no launch for the Famine Trilogy but there will be a launch for 'Haunted Meath.'

Return to the Whitehouse

Got word yesterday from Sean Ryan and Barney Sheehan inviting me back to the Whitehouse in Limerick for a reading.  This was something that I wasn't expecting as I went on far too long when I was there last August. No date fixed yet but it will be later in the year I think

Congratulations

Very reluctant to move on from my day on the bog but it would be less than generous if I failed to congratulate the Boyne Writers on their great win in the Battle of the Books, and in particular Michael Farry whose failure to get ten marks for his take on the proclaimation was to say the least equally heartening and mysterious.  I'm afraid it is just two cheers for the judges who brought gasps to the crowd on more than one occasion for their failure to grasp most of what was going on. An example was my own piece which they said was outdated despite the fact that it include references to such as Jedward, Lowry, The Queen Healy Rae Michael D Higgins, among others.
As a matter of interest we have sacked the timekeeper and sent details to the DPP

Well done Tommy,you can hold your head high and all the team members were valiant. Congratulations also to the Boyne Writers'   Mick  Sheils

Poetry reading on Tullaghanstown Bog

A highly informal poetry reading by poet Tommy Murray proved to be very popular with the local turf cutters last Saturday when an audience of about forty listened to the Trim poet while enjoying a meal of potatoes and bacon.  Top picture -Three Stalwarths listening ---Middle picture Tommy Murray reading  bottom picture  A section of the crowd