I was delighted to launch ‘Exposure’ at Corrymeela, the centre for peace and reconciliation which is only a short walk from my Ballycastle home. And particularly pleased that the event was held in An Croí, the wonderful building whose name is Irish for ‘The Heart’ and which expresses the welcoming and inclusive approach of the centre. It was designed by Norman Hawthorne in 1979. The photograph of it at the head of this article is from a post by his son Corin Hawthorne.
Several of the poems are about places near Corrymeela and it was a pleasure to feature some of those for this audience: Ballintoy, Rathlin Island, Ballycastle, Kenbane, the Sea of Moyle …
It’s a feature of the book that these places near at hand sit in amongst poems about Russia and Ukraine, Gaza and Israel and other places far away.
My thanks to Ballycastle Chronicle photographer, Ciaran Clancy who shepherded half the audience into this photo below. But I didn’t get the opportunity to snap the other half!
I included a poem which is not in ‘Exposure’ but is about the building itself.
