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Féile Idirnáisiúnta Filíochta Bhéal Áth na mBuillí

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Strokestown International Poetry Festival is now in its eleventh successful year. It takes place over the first weekend in May and aims to provide a forum for excellence in poetry, of different types and in both English and Irish, and to create new audiences for poetry.

The weekend consists of readings from poets across the spectrum, well-known and new voices - approximately twenty readings over three days. For these it commands large audiences - even at 10.30am!

The festival has its own particular style created by several unusual features - for instance: 

  • All the poetry readings are free. In this way we aim to make poetry as accessible as possible, particularly to local people and schools. This is possible thanks to the generosity of Strokestown's local businesses which provide funds, venues, effort and help in kind. Along with crucial funding from bodies such as the Arts Council, this enthusiastic local participation is the key element in the sustainability of the festival.
  • No events run concurrently, so everyone can go to everything – which makes for an unusually intense poetic experience. It also makes the festival exceptionally sociable – every year new friendships are forged over the course of the weekend.
  • It offers a small town welcome and convivial informality with some of the most gracious settings for poetry readings in Ireland. The satirical verse, and schools' poetry competitions take place in the appositely named Percy French Hotel, while other poetry readings take place in the extraordinarily romantic surroundings of Strokestown Park House and its gardens.
    
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
   

Above, 2008 Director Peter Sirr

      
   

Below, Poet Iggy McGovern

      
   

     
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
                 
 
 
                 
 

             
  Activities - scroll down the page to get an idea of the festival's scope    
               
                 
                 
    Schools Poetry            
                 
                 
    The festival begins with readings of their work by young people participating in the annual poetry competition for local schools.

This, along with a Writers in Schools programme which we initiated in 2002, and have run latterly in conjunction with Poetry Ireland, provides a stimulus and forum for young talent.  

  

     
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
          Young winners in 2007,with the headless Duke of Wellington behind.      
               
                 
                 
                 
    Workshops            
                 
    Informal, free workshops, with a professional facilitator, take place in Strokestown before the festival.

They focus on the work of some of the poets who will read at the festival, with the aim of making the readings more enjoyable to a more informed audience.

  

   
         
         
         
         
         
             
                 
                 
                 
    Competitions            
                 
    The English and Irish language poetry competition prizes are announced and awarded at the festival. Each shortlisted poet gives a reading and each judge talks about the shortlisted poems.    
       
       
                 
                 
                 
    The Sliabh Bán ashplant            
                 
      Cut from the local mountain, Sliabh Bán, these staves were used to resolve arguments in Strokestown in times past.

They remain a potential deciding factor in present day literary disputes.

They are the festival's unique and much-coveted trophies and are awarded to winners... and sometimes judges and guests.

Right, Simon O Faoláin and Gréagoir Ó Dúill in literary harmony 

   
         
         
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    The festival bookshop        
             
    Possibly the most elegant bookshop in Ireland... located in the dining room of Strokestown Park House and smoothly run for the duration of the festival by committee member Kevin Hussey and pupils from Scoil Mhuire, Strokestown.      
         
         
         
         
         
         
             
             
             
                 
                 
                 
    The topical satire prizes    

     
               
    Surprising talents emerge when contestants are invited to satirise our dear leaders, and the follies of modern life, in verse...

Right: Festival Treasurer Shane Lynskey slips a backhander in a brown envelope to Claudia, a satirist from St. Andrews in Scotland.

          
             
             
             
             
             
             
             
               
                 
                 
    Pub poetry            
                 
    Strokestown is well supplied with fine pubs, and the festival permeates deep into the snugs in the form of the inter-pub poetry competition. Each pub fields poems by their own regulars – often of a witty and scurrilous nature – and the final is held on the Sunday night.    
       
       
                 
                 
                 
    Music  

   
           
    Music is provided by the accomplished Strokestown Choral Society, right, who give a concert on the evening of the main prizegiving.

Other performers have included traditional music luminaries Matt Molloy, John Carty, Patsy Hanly and John Spillane.

      
         
         
         
         
         
                 
                 
                 
    Strokestown Park House garden tour      
                 
   

 

 

 

 

Above: an eighteenth century watercolour of the house.

Right: Just the same today  

   
       
       
       
       
                 
    One of the most enjoyable parts of the festival is the special free festival tour of the huge, walled pleasure and vegetable gardens, now restored to their former glory. It is conducted by manager John O'Driscoll, right, and gets a large and enthusiastic turn out, even if it is raining.

If the weather is fine enough we also have readings in the sublime setting of the formal garden.

    
       
       
                 
                 
 
 
                 
 

             
  The committee            
               
  Strokestown International Poetry Festival is run by a Director and a voluntary committee.
Chair: Pat Compton; Treasurer: Shane Lynskey; Director: Merrily Harpur; Committee: Maureen Hanly, Melissa Newman, Kevin Hussey.

The festival receives much help from local people and businesses. These include Hanly’s Spar Supermarket, Westward Scania, the Callery family, The Roscommon Champion, The Roscommon Herald, The Bank of Ireland, The Percy French Hotel, Westward Holdings Ltd. and the manager and staff of Strokestown Park House. We are also supported by The Arts Council, Roscommon County Council, Colmcille, RnaG, TG4, Foras na Gaeilge. Please go to our sponsors page to read more and find links.

    
       
       
       
                 
 
 
                 
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