Editors statement
Poetry is as wide and deep as the human experience. It is something that while universal, is yet unique. Something in our consciousness, not always immediately recognizable or tangible, spurs us to put pen to paper or finger to keyboard to record a moment. I hold strong with the opinion that there is always room and time for a good poem. To this end, it was an honour and a joy to edit the 2022 Broadsheet. The selection of poetry moved me in some way, in a distinct aesthetic, a family moment, a snapshot of something frozen in time, family, relationships, love, loss, and all the in-between. Sometimes painful, sometimes funny, these are poems that look at things askew, or with a vivid aesthetic of past experiences. Living life through your own lens, and relying on your own perspective to witness a moment of your life, or to use language in new and exciting ways to recount an emotion, is a beautiful act. The world is so topsy-turvy all the time, I think poetry is hope. To this end, I hope you too are moved by the selection, and that you find something tangible and reassuring in the human experience as written among these lines.
Listen to Fuaimeanna by Prionsias O’Donnchadh and Cillin by Billy Fenton
Prionsias O’Donnchadh Biography
Proinsias is a native of Glenflesk, Co. Kerry. For a number of years he worked as a primary and secondary school teacher in a number of counties. Having served as a Schools Inspector for six years, he moved to Kilkenny in 1981. He retired from that position in 2003. Over the years he contributed articles on various topics to Inniu, Education Ireland and the Kerryman. He also presented a bi-lingual programme, Eistigi Tamall, on Radio Kilkenny from 1989 to 2003. He has published two books of personal memories, A Stack of Stories and A Harvest of Memories. His great interests are Gaeilge, music, especially singing and of course Gaelic Football. Writing continues to hold him captive to the written word.
Billy Fenton Biography
Billy Fenton writes poetry and short stories. His work has been published in the Irish Times, Poetry Ireland Review, The North, Irish Independent, Crannóg, Honest Ulsterman, Abridged, Acumen, and many others. He was shortlisted for a Hennessy Award in 2018, and was appointed by Poetry Ireland in 2021 as poet laureate for Carrick-on-Suir.@BillyFenton7
Learning to Fly by Mike Wates
Mike Wates Biography
Mike has been writing poetry for over 50 years. A founder member of Poetry Galway (now Salmon) he has been in many writing groups since settling in Kilkenny. Mine’s work has been published in Kilkenny Broadsheet, Wrting in the West, Poetry Galway, Salmon and Poems from a Kilkenny laneway. He has published two self illustrated children’s books. Originally from Leicestershire Mike came to Ireland in 1973.
Listen to My Baby Boy by Jacinta Cody
Jacinta’s Biography
My name is Jacinta Cody. I’m fifty one, I am a mother of two boys aged twenty three and seventeen. I am a full time carer to my youngest son. I started writing poetry when I was sixteen, I am a member of two online poetry groups. I am passionate about animal welfare and bringing awareness about the illness Motor Neurone Disease, which sadly, my mother passed away from in 2016. My interests are, poetry, art, reading, baking and making people laugh.
Quake by Laura O’Neill
Laura’s Biography
Laura O’Neill is a Kilkenny writer, musician, priestess and spiritual teacher, with a background in English Literature & Philosophy. She lives in devotion to Love, the mystical & the ordinary; as a living reminder of shameless humanness, everyday creativity, and our inherent connection to earth, purpose & each other. She also works as a soul coach and tantric practitioner, serving the emergence of a new heart-, soul- & soil-centered way of being. Find her art and offerings at @thisisellowen & www.ellowen.life.
Listen to The Things You Carried, I Carry Them Too by Nuala Roche and The Year You Fell In Love With Sidney Poitier by Noel Howley
Nuala’s Biography
Winner of Dromineer Literature Festival’s poetry prize in 2017, Nuala was awarded an Arts Office Bursary to publish her chapbook, Fish-Speak , and towards her one-act play Bridie.. Her work is published in The Cormorant Broadsheets and its anthology, Doghouse Press journal, Pendemic.ie and ten editions of the Kilkenny Poetry Broadsheet.
Noel’s Bio
Noel Howley originally from South Kilkenny now living in Waterford. Noel has been writing poetry since he was a teenager. In 2011 he was shortlisted for the Listowel Writer’s Week Poetry Collection Competition and commended in the Patrick Kavanagh Manuscript competition and was runner-up in the Cork Literary Review Manuscript Competition 2002. He has had poems published in various journals and broadsheets including the Kilkenny Broadsheet, The Waterford Review, Cork Literary Review and Revival Literal Journal. His poems also appeared in the Colony Online and Silver Streams online journals. In 2019 he won the Waterford Poetry Prize. He has read his poetry at various events including Cuirt International Festival of Literature, Kilkenny Arts Week, Limerick Writer’s Centre, Garter Lane Arts Center and Tigh Filí Cork as well as many local venues in the south east and is currently a member or Waterford Writers.
Listening to the Corncrake by Willie-Joe Meally and Single Mother by Susie Lamb
Willie-Joe’s Biography
Willie-Joe Meally, from Moneenroe, Castlecomer, Co.Kilkenny, now living in Kilpatrick, Clogh. Married to Jane, he is a founder member of Clogh Writers (1995). Published at local, national and international level, Willie- Joe also has read his work at literary events and workshops throughout the country. He writes mainly poetry and short story. His work reflects a local theme, rooted in a mining heritage. One of his stories was adapted for a short film and was well received in Ireland and abroad. He was very involved in Clogh Writers’ organisation of three Culture Night events and welcomes visiting writers from near and far.
Susie’s Biography
Susie Lamb is an actress, writer, voice over artist and performance educator. She grew up in a Theatre family and tried to avoid her fate as a performer for many years, due to shyness. She has been writing since she was a teenager in one form or another and it embraces her shy side. Now she has reconciled her introvert extrovert personality through writing and acting/performing and they that happily co exist. She lives in Thomastown with her husband, her daughter, two cats and many plants. She has completed one novel with the support of the Kilkenny Arts office, many stories, flash fiction, poems. She is currently writing her second novel. She has also written and performed her own woman shows. Susie recently set up her own voice over recording facility and records spoken word, online educational content and commercials from her home.
Still Life by Janis Woodgate
Janis Woodgate’s Biography
Janis Woodgate is a Kilkenny woman who generally writes poetry, though she is currently writing prose passages, inspired by her personal journalling practice and observations. Since returning to creative writing in 2016, having spent a decade focused on drama and theatre, Janis has availed of the Kilkenny Arts Office’s suite of supports for local writers. Following the Poetry Broadsheet Workshop with editor Elaine Feeney, Janis was inspired to complete a poem she began in 2017, for submission to the competition. Janis’ poems have been published in previous editions of The Kilkenny Poetry Broadsheet and in the Poetry Ireland Review.
Trainspotting by Karen S Moore
Karen’s Biography
S. Moore is one of this year’s Poetry Ireland Introductions poets. Her poetry has recently been published by Green Ink Poetry, Skylight 47, The Honest Ulsterman and New Welsh Review. Work has also featured in Arachne Press and Broken Sleep anthologies. In 2021, K. S. Moore was commended in Cheltenham Poetry Festival’s Single Poem Contest. In 2020, she placed third in the Waterford Poetry Prize. She is currently developing the K. S. Moore YouTube channel.
Listen to ‘Voice’ by Kim Heffernan and A Mother to her Daughter From the Farther Shore by Cathy Hogan
Kim Heffernan’s Biography
My name is Kim Kinsella. I am originally from Cork and have lived in Kilkenny since 2001. In 2020, like so many others, as a result of the pandemic, I invested many hours in walking. I got involved with a virtual walking group which took me along a totally unexpected path. I’d always felt the tapping of the creative but being a busy working mum of two children never had the time, or more importantly confidence to dip my toe into The Arts. This other world always belonged to someone else. In joining the walking group I met new people, many creative who were supportive and inspiring. I gradually started to dabble with words and rhymes matching those words to my thoughts and emotions. Surprisingly I found great peace in writing, a kind of meditation or switching off that I had searched for for many years. Who knew all I needed was a pen and paper! To those who have helped me with this modest start I’d like to say……
Cathy’s Biography
Cathy Hogan is a writer from Kilkenny. She has travelled extensively around the world and worked on local and national arts festivals for two decades. In 2012 she graduated from NUI Galway with a BA in Creative Writing. While living in Spain in 2020 and 2021, she was a columnist for the Kilkenny People. Cathy has won awards for flash fiction and screenwriting, and her first play was produced earlier this year.
What The Silence Brings by Liam O’Neill
Liam’s Bio
Liam O’Neill is a poet and writer living in Galway City. His poem ‘Yola’ was shortlisted for the Hennessy Poetry Prize in 2018. His poems have appeared in The Irish Times, Poetry Ireland Review, Ropes Literary Journal (NUIG), Extinction Rebellion website, and numerous anthologies, including, Working People’s Poetry in Ireland and the Ken Saro-Wiwa Anthology published by Maynooth University. Liam has also written a work of non-fiction titled ‘All the Days of Winter’, available in the Amazon bookstore.
All of the above poems were recorded by Amy Dunne and John Morton
