Kilkenny Arts Office is thrilled to be celebrating twenty-five years of the hugely popular Kilkenny Poetry Broadsheet and we are delighted to work with editor Enda Wyley to celebrate a quarter-century of wonderful poetic expression. This much-loved, beautifully illustrated publication provides an annual publishing opportunity for Kilkenny poets. Since its inception, it has become a cherished platform for both emerging and established poets from Kilkenny. One hundred and thirty-three poems by seventy-three poets were submitted for consideration this year and in honour of our 25th year we expanded the publication and have published twenty-five poems, one for each edition that’s lit up the literary landscape before us.
The Broadsheet holds a special place in the hearts of our writing community, the wider public, and for us here in the Arts Office, it’s one of the highlights of our year. Here’s to twenty-five more years of stories yet to be told, voices waiting to be discovered, and the enduring power of poetry to connect us all. A launch of the publication was held on the 14th August in the Parade Tower, Kilkenny Castle.
Printed copies of the Broadsheet are available in all libraries across the County.
Poets selected for publication include:
Laura O’ Neill, Fergal Canton, Liam O’ Neill, Robert MCLoughlin, Catherine Cronin, Lee Shanahan, Anne Mac Darby Beck, Kevin Dowling, Tais Val Penna, Angela Esmonde, Willie Joe Meally, Noel Howley, Gerry Moran, Roísín Sheehy, Judy Rhatigan, Siobhan O’ Shea, Kayleigh Redmond, Mary Walpole, Susie Lamb, Eamonn O’ Donovan, Christina Warner, Mary Malin, Nora Brennan.
View a digital copy of the Broadsheet here: KIlkenny Poetry Broadsheet 2025
Editor’s Biography
Enda Wyley has published six collections of poetry with Dedalus Press: The Painter on his Bike (2019) Borrowed Space, New and Selected Poems, (2014), To Wake to This, (2009), Poems for Breakfast, ( 2004 ), Socrates in the Garden, (1998) and Eating Baby Jesus, (1993). A seventh collection is due in 2025. Awards include the Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize, Melbourne University and a Reading Association of Ireland Award. Her books for children from O’Brien Press, are Boo and Bear, I Won’t Go to China! and The Silver Notebook. Enda is a highly experienced teacher of poetry and has been a judge for several competitions, including the International Dublin Literary Award and Strokestown International Poetry Festival. Enda’s work has frequently been broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1 and she he co-hosts the popular podcast Books for Breakfast, about books and writing. She is a member of Aosdána, the Irish academy of artists.
Published Poets Biographies:
Angela Esmonde grew up Kilkenny. After many years, she moved back permanently to her beloved city in 2023. She has strong connections with Wexford, having spent all her childhood summers there on her grandparent’s farm. Her poetry and short story writing is based on memoir, historical and international events. As a founding member of Kilkenny Writers Anonymous, she is involved in organising poetry and other open mic events in the city. She has been previously published in the Broadsheet and other local anthologies.
Anne Mac Darby Beck was born into a working-class family in rural County Laois. In national school she developed a passion for writing and wrote extensively as a child but fell away from the practice in her late teens. She married a Kilkenny man in 1983 and moved south, joining a women’s study group which became the Bennettsbridge Writers’ Group. She writes poems and short stories in her free time outside of work and home commitments. Her poems and stories have been published in various anthologies and magazines such as Poetry Ireland Review, Skylight 47, Crannog, Cyphers, etc. Her poems and stories have also appeared in British journals and in the USA where her work was recently published in The Scarlet Review, literary journal of the Sigma Tau Delta Iota Chi honour society at California State University. She has won several awards including a first place in Syllables Poetry Competition.
Robert McLoughlin has a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities with a focus in literature and writing from Hiram College in the States. He has a Certificate in Creative Writing from Maynooth University and a residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre. He has self-published six books. His web page is at www.writingrobert.com
Catherine Cronin is originally from Cellarstown, Co. Kilkenny, but currently lives in Switzerland with her husband, Ivan. Her one-woman show Orphan Disease, premiered in Zurich with Close Encounters Theater in 2021 while her first play, Håber Undone, was selected by Druid for their Debut Online series that same year. She was commissioned by Close Encounters to write Caged for their adult acting course which was performed in 2023. Her play, Ancestor, was adapted for a short film by Zero to Hollywood in 2024. Her poetry and prose have been published in Ireland, Switzerland, the UK and the US, including The Honest Ulsterman, The Ogham Stone, The Kilkenny Observer, Zwischentext, The Storms Journal and The Waxed Lemon. This summer she attended The Stinging Fly Poetry Summer School taught by Martina Evans.
Christina Warner is originally from Donegal has been living in Kilkenny for most of her life. When she retired from work as a secondary school teacher, she joined a writers’ group where through the support of workshops and group feedback she writes poetry and prose in Irish.
Eamonn Donovan is now retired and taking the opportunity to pursue various interests. One of these is writing in various forms. He has attended workshops and courses given by proficient writers in an effort to develop my skills. One genre is poetry which he finds very enjoyable. Some of his poems have been shortlisted and selected for publication in the Kilkenny Broadsheet.
Fergal Canton holds a Bachelors degree in English and Religion. He holds an MA in Gaelic Literature and Culture. He is a poet, musician and singer-songwriter in both English and Irish. He is a member of the Irish Writers Centre and has attended writing workshops with Adam Wyeth, David Butler, Kevin McDermott, and James Harpur. In 2023 he performed his original works in the International Literature Festival Dublin and the Dublin Book Festival.
He presented at the Kilkenny Poetry Broadsheet Launch 2024 and the Kilkenny Fringe The Soapbox City Spoken Word events in Rothe House. Fergal, together with poet Róisín Sheehy, have presented their work Aisling as part of the Rothe House Christmas Miscellany 2024 and in the Mayfair Library for Seachtain na Gaeilge. He will be presenting Dánta Duchais agus Dóchais with Ciorcal Comhrá na Feoire as part of Culture Night next September. Fergal’s poems often allude to Celtic motifs and themes, echoing the ancient poetry tradition linked to language, heritage, and memory.
Gerry Moran is three times winner in the Humorous Essay/Verse competition, Listowel Writers week. Past winner of the Toastmasters International Humorous Speech Competition held between Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales. Work broadcast on Sunday Miscellany and on Mike Murphy’s morning radio show. Presented the Arts show and Saturday Miscellany, a magazine type show, on Kilkenny Community Radio. Columnist with the Kilkenny People for over 25 years (1985-2021). Columnist with the Kilkenny Observer (2022 to present day). Featured in the New Irish Writing page of the Irish Press, Sunday Miscellany collections and Kilkenny Poetry Broadsheet publications. Regular contributor to Ireland’s Own and various poetry publications. Author of ‘Kilkenny City and County.’
Kevin Dowling was born London, 1962, lives and works in County Kilkenny. Member of Clogh writing group in North Kilkenny. Has been writing mainly poems and stories for a few years. Poems published in The Kilkenny Anthology, Kilkenny Poetry Broadsheet, Stony Thursday Book, Where I Am, Riposte. Poems also included in Kilkenny poetry phone line.
Lee Shanahan is a visual artist based in Kilkenny, who enjoys writing in his spare time. Lee’s bold and engaging work focuses on the importance of communication and human interaction, and pushes the boundaries of narrative and figuration. His visual work, as well as literary work delves into the lyrical and the uncanny, combining moments of quiet reflection and interactions of emotional weight, leading viewers and readers into an environment that is startlingly new but remarkably familiar to us all. Elements such as figures often appear together or solitary in states of silent exchange or astounding isolation. At times, an event has just occurred that we, as spectators, can never ultimately grasp the significance of and are left with unanswered questions. Shanahan’s created world occupies a liminal space; emotional complexity and uncertainty are key to its poetic representation. Suspended in ambiguous narratives that invite the viewer and reader to create their own interpretations, Lee’s work offers a tactile reflection of intimacy, communication, and the fragile beauty of human connection.
Instagram: @leeshanahanart
Website: www.leeshanahan.com
Mary Walpole is married with two adult daughters and one adorable grandson. Her hobbies are reading, writing, walking and gardening. She writes mostly short memory pieces and flash fiction with the occasional foray into poetry. Her favourite poets are Patrick Kavanagh, Seamus Heaney and for a bit of wit she likes Pam Ayres. Having grown up on a farm she is inspired by nature and the rhythm of rural life. Love of animals, all creatures great and small, plays a big part in her life and that of her wider family. In particular, her mother’s love of animals and her care for them has been a huge influence. Her poem ‘Milking Music’ comes from her memories of her mother hand milking the cows in the company of cats and kittens. Her gentle nature and respect for animals will always stay with Mary. It means a lot to have this poem selected for the Poetry Broadsheet.
Noel Howley is originally from Mooncoin, he now lives in Waterford. He was runner-up in the Cork Literary Review Manuscript Competition 2002. He has had poems published in the Kilkenny Broadsheet, Revival Literary Journal, The Waxed Lemon, The Poetry Salzburg Review, The Honest Ulsterman and Poetry Ireland Review. In 2019 won the Waterford Poetry Prize. Noel is currently studying for a Master in Poetry at The Seamus Centre, Queen’s University, Belfast. In 2025 he was awarded an Ireland Chair of Poetry Student Bursary.
Nora Brennan lives in Kilkenny and writes poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction. Her poems have appeared in Crannóg, The Kilkenny Poetry Broadsheet, Skylight 47, The Stony Thursday Book and elsewhere. A prize winner in national competitions including the Jonathan Swift and Francis Ledwidge poetry awards, her latest collection of poems, Still Time, was published by Revival Press in November 2024. Her previous collection, The Greening of Stubble Ground, was published in 2017.
Siobhán O’Shea is a writer from Kilkenny. During Covid-19, she wrote stories for her nieces and nephews to keep them occupied. One of these was developed into a small children’s book, and she donated the proceeds of it to the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation. She wanted to write about her experience of working through Covid-19, so she joined an online creative writing class with Martin Keaveney Creative Writing. She found she really enjoyed it, and through this class she explored all genres of writing, including poetry. This gave her a chance to reflect on images and emotions in everyday life and to have some fun with it. Her work has been published in an anthology called Waves (published by Atlantic Papers) and in the literary magazine The Ocean (Issues 1.2 and 2.2 to follow on this year). She is currently working on a children’s story including some poetry and other projects, and she finds a lot of joy from writing. She also attended a one-day poetry workshop with Enda Wyley in Kilkenny’s beautiful Butler House, and she found the workshop highly informative and very enjoyable.
Susie Lamb wrote her first poem when she was 13. She had her debut publication in the Kilkenny broadsheet in 2009 and has been selected seven times for publication since then, by a range of broadsheet editors. She is working her way toward a collection. With the support of Kilkenny Arts Office, the Tyrone Guthrie Bursary and the Kilkenny writers mentorship programme with Grace Wells, she has completed one novel, currently seeking publication. She has begun work on her second novel. In 2025, she was awarded an Arts Act Grant to receive mentorship for writing her first feature film screenplay.
Susie is also an accomplished Theatre, screen and voice actor and has written two one woman performances. Horae was shortlisted for the Women’s International Playwriting Conference, South Africa 2012 and which was performed in the Complex, Dublin in 2017. She also co-wrote Songlines with Jeffrey Gormly in 2023, which was supported by Kilkenny Culture night funding and performed in Rothe house, with Kate Powell. She is delighted to be included in this 25th anniversary issue of the broadsheet. She says of the broadsheet ‘Being published for the first time in the broadsheet was a milestone in my journey as a writer. Writing for me can be painfully slow and for one reason or another, not all my writing makes it way to a reader.To have my poetry made visible that first time, gave it another life outside my own intimate world, and gave it a purpose beyond myself. Platforms like the broadsheet are invaluable for so many reasons from building up a writing community to working with a range of editors’.
Willie-Joe Meally, from Moneenroe, Co. Kilkenny. A coalminer’s son, from an early age he was steeped in coalmining history and lore, hearing tales from the fireside and crossroads around Moneenroe and surrounding areas. A member of Clogh Writers, Willie-Joe writes poems, remembering times past and observing our present times. His poems reflect the natural world of times gone by, recalling traditions, customs and heritage. Alongside this, he likes to explore the present-day world with an imaginative eye towards the future.
Laura O’Neill is a writer, singer-songwriter, and psychotherapist from Ireland. Her written work draws on the raw material of life — love, loss, land, and longing — to create art that is at once medicine and myth, deeply embodied and soulfully honest. Writing was her first and deepest calling, the lens through which she makes sense of the world and herself — a practice of beauty-making in even the most difficult places. Under the name Ellowen, she crafts music that lives at the threshold of folk and ritual, alchemising emotion into sound. Her many recorded works explore the sensual, the sacred, and the shadowy edges of being human, and her debut album is being released this year as a series of singles (all of which can be found wherever you get your music).
In her psychotherapeutic work, as with her art, she aims to help connect people with body, heart & soul.
You can find her art & offerings here:
Instagram: @thisisellowen
Therapy: www.anamtherapy.com
Mary Malin grew up in Dublin, then spent 20 years working in the UK, first in Academic Publishing and then with Oxford Brookes University, teaching the Masters in Publishing Studies. She moved to Kilkenny in 2012 and has been fortunate enough to feature in a number of Broadsheets. Poetry has always been a source of solace in her life, along with her daughters Orla and Emer.
Róisín Sheehy:
Is file, drámadóir agus rinceoir í Róisín Sheehy. D’fhoilsigh Coiscéim a céad cnuasach ‘Líomóidí ‘s Rúbarb’ agus d’fhoilsigh Leabhar Comhar a dráma ‘Snámh na Saoirse’. Tá duaiseanna Oireachtas buaite aici. Bronnadh gradam Stewart Parker ar a dráma ‘Snámh na Saoirse’. Is as Corca Dhuibhne ó dhúchas di agus tá sí ag conaí anois i gCill Chainnigh.
Róisín is an award winning poet and playwright. Her debut compilation ‘Líomóidí ’Rúbarb’ was published by Coiscéim. Her play ‘Snámh na Saoirse’ was awarded a Stewart Parker Trust award and published by Coiscéim. Róisín is invigorated by dance. She’s a native of West Kerry Gaeltacht and now lives in Kilkenny.
Liam O’Neills poems can found in a variety of places: Anthology of Working Class Irish Poetry. ‘Ropes’ published by University of Galway. The Recusant and Extinction Rebellion Ezines. Ken Saro Wi-wa Poetry Anthology. Poetry Ireland Review and The Irish Times. He was shortlisted for the Bread & Roses Poetry Competition in the UK in 2023and the Hennessey emerging poet prize 2019.
Kayleigh Redmond is a Dublin-born, Kilkenny-based writer. Her work explores relationships, memory, and the quiet impact of real-life events. When she’s not writing, she’s usually worrying about not writing. ‘Tramore, the Day After’ is her first published piece.
Tais Val Penna was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and moved to Ireland in 2019 to work in the animation industry. Stories are how she makes sense of the world, and she has always consumed them as much as creating them. She remembers being around seven years old, learning to type on the very first family desktop computer—before internet access—and losing her first collection of original short stories when that computer inevitably broke and was replaced. Her main job is as a 2D animator, but she also works with sign writing, illustration, translation, and, of course, writing. While she followed a formal career path in the digital arts industry, she always continued writing comics, scripts, short stories, and poems—often mixing not only crafts and media, but also languages, as her native language is Portuguese. Some things are born on a canvas, some on a page. Her method is to express herself however feels right and let it flow. She finds that it’s not her telling the stories, but the stories using her to be told.
