My first blog on gorse ( see end of this post) gave rise to some lovely reactions.  I went looking for more gorse-related poetry in Irish and Róise Ní Bhaoill, writer, editor and folklorist, gave me such a generous response that her material will supply more than one blog. I am very grateful indeed.

I had referenced the ancient Irish poem commonly known as ‘The Blackbird of Belfast Lough’ so Róise draws our attention to some thoughts from a talk of 2012 by the late Aodán Mac Póilin, formerly Director of the Ultach Trust where he and Róise  were colleagues.

“I’d like to give you a taste of the culture of that thousand-year period. I’ll start with a tiny little 9^th century poem set on the shores of Belfast Lough, which at that time was called Loch Lao.

Int én bec                fo-cheird faíd

ro léic feit                ós loch laíg

do rinn guip            lon do chraíb

glanbuidi:               charnbuidi Continue reading Gorse, Whin, Furze 2 – more shared love in Irish, Ulster Scots, Scots & English →

I’ve been delighted to contribute the first of two blogs to the Creative COVID19 Blog Site of the Centre for the Study of Media and Culture in Small Nations at the University of South Wales.

This site pulls together research and information about a wide range of responses to the constrictions experienced in many fields of creativity: Theatre, Screen Industries, Public Service Broadcasting, Tourism and other areas.

And it hosts also the first Screen Industries Census for the Cardiff Capital region. I am a fan of counting things in the media sector because otherwise policy and practice develop in an ill-informed vaccuum.

I’ve written about Creative Writing in Lockdown – Writing about Place.

I am unable to get to the place I undertook to write about for a prose and poetry work for which I have received a SIAP Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland this year. A book about the performance of culture in Wales has helped me get my head around how to keep my writing on track: Prof. Lisa Lewis’s ‘Performing Wales’.