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Anyway I was in Belfast paying a visit to my old pal Dave Torrans of No Alibis bookshop and as I was coming in he was on his way out. He said he was going to a poetry reading and would I like to come. He must have noted the suspicious look on my face because he quickly added "don't worry, mate, it's right up your ally - it's Sinead Morrissey."
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We walked down to the Ulster Museum and despite the road blocks and the trouble 150 people had shown up to hear Morrissey read a dozen of her new poems. Ireland is one of the places in the world where poetry is still taken very seriously, where many people still memorize poems for pleasure, where people write poetry and read it, and where the poetry section of bookshops is bigger than, say, the self help section. Perhaps because of the bardic tradition poets in Ireland have always garnered respect, more so, I believe, than in America or even England where the job of poet can be seen as something slightly dodgy.
We walked down to the Ulster Museum and despite the road blocks and the trouble 150 people had shown up to hear Morrissey read a dozen of her new poems. Ireland is one of the places in the world where poetry is still taken very seriously, where many people still memorize poems for pleasure, where people write poetry and read it, and where the poetry section of bookshops is bigger than, say, the self help section. Perhaps because of the bardic tradition poets in Ireland have always garnered respect, more so, I believe, than in America or even England where the job of poet can be seen as something slightly dodgy.
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I've blogged about Sinead Morrissey before although I'd never been to one of her readings until last week. She doesn't read as a matter of fact - all her poems are in her head and the words tumble from her memory easily in a flow like a song. My favourite of her new poems was one about the film A Matter Of Life And Death which was playing on BBC 2 as she was going into labour...A truly beautiful piece of verse which I haven't been able to find online but which - I assume - will be in her new collection out later this year.
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It was nice of Dave Torrans to introduce me to Sinead and I hope I didn't make a complete fool of myself, being such a big fan of her work for years. Anyway here's a little youtube of Sinead talking about her work in 2012 and do look for her collection when it comes out in the Spring...
32 comments:
dont believe everything you read adrian - despite news and police reports, these roadblocks are not paramilitary manned, and in most cases not even supported (in the Belfast area anyway), which is a big problem as community groups have no-one to liaise with. for the most part the protests are peaceful, with feral kids/teens battling with police long after the protests end.
Adrian, I was at Sinead's reading too - I try not to miss her readings, as you say, the she reads as if she's just thought them up and wants to share them with us. I think this next collection of hers is special - so much vitality there, she's been on a roll all year with the writing.
best for now
Sheila ( Llewellyn).
OK I now have Ireland on my places to go list (usually my dream list consists with stupid beaches and sunny weather to combat the 2.5 meters of snow and -25 degree weather in Canadia).
Poetry sections larger than self-help sections. Would you look at that. Hopefully the poets in Ireland don't recite like most of the droners who came to Naropa.... where a certain tone used to take hold of many of the poets and it was not a useful one.
Thanks for reminding me of her again. I believe I did see that YouTube, but it was good to hear the poems again. I must have also gone on to see the Clangers because I can visualize them, although they weren't part of my childhood.
Very lovely stuff, and I'm sure she was happy to meet a fan.
Mark
Well I can only speak from my own experience. On Carrick that Friday night it was a bunch of about 50 teens wearing hoodies throwing cobbles, stones and bottles at the police. I could easily have gotten a plastic bullet in the head from the PSNI because I was standing there like a bloody idiot in my black track suit bottoms with my red hoodie up. According to the news 5 plastic bullets were fired in Carrick that night.
My little brother that same night was stopped at an impromtu roadblock by men in balcalavas on his way to see his wife's church pantomime in South Central Belfast.
Bizarre.
Sheila
Yeah it was a bit of a con wasn't it? She didnt actually read anything!
I'm kidding. So beautiful the way she did it like that.
Sheiler
This was not like a Naropa event. Although I'm not going to tar all Naropa events with the same brush. When my old pal Brian Evenson reads there its quite lively.
And then there was the famous topless protest about something or other which didnt happen in my presence - mores the pity.
Seana
She might have been but she was meeting so many people it probably didnt register at all.
Mark
But your more general point is well taken. Outside the Province all you hear about are the teen rioters not the thousands of peaceful protesters. Also of course you would never hear about how 150 people showed up to go to a poetry reading...
And actually I'm not sure if the people who hassled my little brother were wearing the full balaclava gear or whether they too were just kids wearing hoodies...
balaclavas arent the sole preserve of the paramilitaries you know - my dad wears one going fishing and has been getting endlessly ribbed about being mistaken for a rioter. lol.
Mark
Thats funny.
In the 80s I used to go to school in a black wool snood which my mum knitted for me - almost the same thing as a balaclava.
How the hell is a frail innocent supposed to keep his face warm in Northern Ireland without being mistaken for a troublemaker?
Peter
Its fortunate there are no ski slopes but of course there arent.
Balaclavas--Up in the Montreal of my youth, when winters were winters, we lacked imagination, called balaclavas "mask hats," and loved to imagine we were masked superheroes while wearing them. Of course, they were available in a range of cheerful colors much wider than basic black.
I don't know any Americans who call them anything but ski masks.I suppose it would be easier to make balaklavas sound poetic than ski masks, though.
"Balaclavas" sounds scarier, if not more poetic. My first glimpse of Belfast was a giant mural of a guy with balaclava and gun at the base of Sandy Row at dusk. The clumsy execution of many of the murals makes them even scarier.
Peter - I just had a funny image of protesters lined up in brightly coloured luchadero masks, would certainly ease the tension some anyway
Peter
The big UVF mural in Carrickfergus is of a similar bent. A "naive" art balacalava wearing man carrying an AK 47.
Usually tourists prefer the Republican murals because they're more subtle, I suppose the Loyalist ones convey the message to visitors that they are not particularly welcome.
Seana
There is a motorcycle helmet/ski mask law for most banks though isnt there?
Mark
Genius.
Mark, different colors for different factions, maybe, or special spring, summer, and fall colors?
Adrian, you'll remember that the mural in Belfast reads: "You are entering Loyalist Sandy Row." And that was my introduction to the city. Funny thing is, when I later passed the other end of Sandy Row, on my way to my B&B in South Belfast, it looked like the snuggest, homiest street one could imagine.
Some of the Republican murals are pretty naive stylistically as well. Even the famous bust of a smiling Bobby Sands is pretty roughly done. (I took a bus ride up the Falls Road and down the Shankill.) Over in Derry, one group of muralists was so good that they made a career in art. (I brought back a book on the murals of Derry, courtesy of the good people at Guildhall Press.)
Peter
Billy Connolly had an interesting take on the murals on his travel show around Ireland. He felt that they were naive creative expressions of a fascinating indigenous culture. Which would be all very well, if behind them, there werent paramilitary organisations running protection rackets and dealing drugs.
Adrian, before I visited Belfast the first time, I thought I might write a travel piece about the murals. Then I found out that there was already such a thing as mural tourism. An anthropologist might say that those murals encapsulate many layers of meaning, in other words.
I had some friends visit from Buenos Aires a couple years back, and they were completely enthralled with the murals. 'Freedom Corner' on the Newtownards Road and a couple of other football related ones (George Best, a reference to 1-0 defeat of England some years ago). Their curiosity had been aroused by another friend of theirs who had a picture of themselves in front of the 'you are now entering free Derry' mural. Its funny - coming all the way round the world and having your interest piqued by sectarian images!
Peter - we also took that bus trip. It was a particularly sunny day and we got a little roasted!
It may seem odd, but I haven't found a need to inquire into whether I can wear a ski mask into a bank yet.
Several banks here post signs asking that customers remove hoods, and other headware. And that makes me think I ought to write a story called "Hoods Without Hars" about a gang of bareheaded bank robbers.
hars?
Hats! Hats! Hats!
Keep this up, and I'll put you on retainer as my copy editor, twenty-five dollars a day plus expenses.
I was actually thinking it might be hairs.
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