What: Poetry Reading with Special Guest Gerry Murphy

When: Wednesday, January 27th, 2010, at 9.30pm

Where: The White House Pub, O'Connell Street, Limerick

This Wednesday, Jan 27th, at 9.30pm, the White House bar welcomes guest poet Gerry Murphy to its weekly reading series. Bornin Cork in 1952, Murphy is the author of the collections A Small Fat Boy Walking Backwards, Rio de la Plata and All That, The Empty Quarter, Extracts from the Lost Log-Book of Christopher Columbus, Torso of an Ex-Girlfriend, the translation, Pocket Apocolypse, of the Polish poet Katarzyna Borun-Jagodzinska, and, his latest, End of Part One - New & Selected Poems.

He will read a selection of his work and, as always, the night will be complete with an open-mic session for which all are welcome and encouraged to read. Our resident Master of Ceremonies Barney Sheehan will be hosting the night, entry is free and complimentary finger food will be provided. We hope to see you there.

"Murphy's voice is salacious, funny, pithy, angry-making, often verging on the side-of-the-mouth and, dare one add, tender." (Poetry Ireland Review)

White House Poetry Funding for 2010

At the White House we are delighted to announce the continuance of our weekly Wednesday readings throughout 2010, thanks to generous funding and the continued support of the Arts Council.

White House Poetry Reading, 20th Jan 2010

What: Poetry reading with special guest poet Gabriel Fitzmaurice
When: Wednesday, 10th January, 2010, 9.30pm
Where: The White House pub, o'Connell Street, Limerick

This week for our weekly reading series at the White House we welcome poet Gabriel Fitzmaurice. He will be reading a selection of his work and the night will be complete with an open-mic session as always in which anyone may read and is encouraged to do so. Admission is free and finger food is provided compliments of the White House proprietors.

Gabriel Fitzmaurice was born in Moyvane, Co. Kerry, in 1952. A former Chair and Literary Advisor of Writers' Week, the Writer's Conference in Listowel, he is the author of more than twenty books. They include poetry in both English and Irish, children's verse in English and Irish, essays and collections of songs and ballads.

Some of the collections he will read work from on the night are Rainsong, The Boghole Boys and The space Between: New and Selected Poems. He will also read newer and yet unpulished works.

An esteemed reader and performer of his work, Fitzmaurice was an award winner at the Gerard Manley Hopkins Centenary Poetry Competition and has twice represented Ireland at the European Festival of Poetry in Louvain, Belgium.

We hope to see you there for a greart evening of socialising and poetry.

White House Poetry Revival, 13th Jan 2010

What: poetry reading with special guest Ciaran O'Driscoll
When: Wednesday, 13th Jan 2010, 9,30pm
Where: The White House pub, O'Connell Street, Limerick

This week at our weekly reading series we welcome Kilkenny-born, multi-award winning poet Ciaran O'Driscoll, who will be reading from his sixth and latest full collection of poems, Life Monitor. The night will be complete as always with an open-mic reading, for which anyone is welcome to read and is encouraged to do so. Complimentary finger food will also be provided.

Speaking to O'Driscoll prior to his reading, the poet says ‘Life Monitor’, the title poem of the collection, sees him visiting “his thirteen-year-old son’s bedroom at night to check his breathing,” and realising “this is a routine which has persisted out of pure habit since the boy’s infancy,” when he’d heard “a lot of warnings about cot death. Throughout the remainder of the collection, then, he explores the idea of poetry as a kind of life monitor – he says, “checking the health of the poet himself and the world to which he belongs.”

The subjects in his book range widely from the poet’s own maturing state to messages of comfort from speaking trees, and from wry regret at domestic woes to celebrations of hope. Copies of his book, of course, will also be for sale on the night, which O’Driscoll will happily sign with personalised messages.

O’Driscoll was born in Kilkenny but has resided in Limerick for the past twenty-three years. He remembers coming and says “it was a bit like God, who said You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.” He got involved in Limerick’s poetry scene upon arrival, running the Limerick Poetry Workshop and editing the Limerick Poetry Broadsheet. Today he is a member of the annual Cuisle Limerick City International Poetry Festival and has edited several important poetry books.

Over the years O’Driscoll’s many awards have included a Bursary in Literature from the Arts Council, the Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship in Poetry, and the James Joyce Prize, and he is a member of Aosdana.

So we look forward to seeing you this Wednesday for a social and poetic evening.