Please join us for readings from three acclaimed Irish poets, Jane Clarke, Katie Donovan, and Catherine Phil MacCarthy on Monday, Sept. 25, from 5-6:30 p.m. in Falvey Library’s Speakers’ Corner. This event, titled “Wonders and Realities: Three Irish Poets on Sustainability,” will explore how poetry helps us fine-tune our senses and pay attention to the wonders and realities of our threatened world.

Dig deeper and explore the links below for more information on the featured poets.

Jane Clarke grew up in County Roscommon, Ireland. She is the author of three poetry collections: The River, When the Tree Falls, and A Change in the Air. The latter is shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection 2023. When the Tree Falls was shortlisted for the Pigott Prize 2020, the Irish Times Poetry Now Award 2020, and the Farmgate Café National Poetry Award in 2020.

• The River (Clarke, 2015)
• When the Tree Falls (2019)
• A Change in the Air (2023)
• Jane Clarke website
• Jane Clarke reads and introduces twelve poems from When the Tree Falls (Bloodaxe Books)
• Three poems by Jane Clarke (And Other Poems)
• Conversation with Jane Clarke (Rattle Poetry)
• Interview with poet Jane Clarke (Writing.ie)
• NYU DC Salon Series: A Conversation with Jane Clarke

Katie Donovan was born near Camolin in County Wexford, Ireland and earned degrees from Trinity College Dublin as well as the University of California at Berkeley. Her five books of poetry have all been published by Bloodaxe Books. Her most recent, Off-Duty appeared in September 2016. It was shortlisted for the Irish Times/Poetry Now Prize in 2017. She is the 2017 recipient of the O’Shaughnessy Award for Irish Poetry.

• Entering the Mare (Donovan, 1997)
• Watermelon Man (Donovan, 1999)
• Day of the Dead (Donovan, 2002)
• Rootling (Donovan, 2010)
• Off Duty (Donovan, 2016)
• Katie Donovan website
• Expert workshop: Katie Donovan and how family inspires creativity (Irish Family History Centre)
• Writer’s Block with Katie Donovan (The Gloss)
• Poems from Off Duty by Katie Donovan (Poethead by Chris Murray)
• In conversation with Katie Donovan (The Attic Sessions)
• Katie Donovan reads from Rootling (Bloodaxe Books)

Catherine Phil MacCarthy was born in County Limerick, Ireland. The author of five poetry collections, she studied at University College Cork, Trinity College Dublin, and Central School of Speech and Drama, London. She is the 2014 winner of the O’Shaughnessy Award for Irish Poetry. The Arts Council, An Comhairle Ealaíon, have awarded her a Bursary in Literature towards each of her 2013 and 2020 poetry collections.

• How High the Moon (MacCarthy, 1991)
• This Hour of the Tide (MacCarthy, 1994)
• The Blue Globe (MacCarthy, 1998)
• One Room An Everywhere (MacCarthy, 2003)
• Suntrap (MacCarthy, 2007)
• The Invisible Threshold (MacCarthy, 2012)
• Daughters of the House (MacCarthy, 2019)
• Catherine Phil MacCarthy website
• “Limbo,” read by Catherine Phil MacCarthy (UCD Library Special Collections)
• Interview with Catherine Phil MacCarthy (Island’s Edge)

This ACS-approved event, co-sponsored by the Center for Irish Studies, Falvey Library, and Global Interdisciplinary Studies, is free and open to the public.

Julia Wagner ‘26 CLAS is a Communication major from New Hampshire (Go Patriots!). She works as a Communication & Marketing Student Assistant at Falvey Library. Links provided by Kallie Stahl, Communication & Marketing Specialist at Falvey Library. 

To commemorate St. Patrick’s Day, we’re highlighting new additions to the Philadelphia Ceili Group’s online archives in the Digital Library. The Philadelphia Ceili Group is dedicated to the promotion of Irish music, dance, and culture, and hosts festivals, concerts, and lectures in the greater Philadelphia area to support this mission.

The efforts to digitize the archival recordings of the Philadelphia Ceili Group are ongoing and new recordings are added on a continual basis. New recordings can be heard from the 1983 Fall Festival, which features over a dozen musicians performing reels, jigs, airs, and songs. Performers include Johnny Cunningham, Liz Carroll, Joe and Antoinette McKenna, Mick Moloney, the Egan family, and a tap dancing performance from Howard “Sandman” Sims.

There is also a separate concert with fiddler Kevin Burke and guitarist Mícheál Ó Domhnaill (parts 1 and 2), as well as two installments from the Oíche Cois Tine (Night Beside the Fire) lecture series on the Irish sense of place, given by Dr. Henry Glassie and Brian Donnelly. The Donnelly lecture in particular features readings of poems by W.B. Yeats, Patrick Kavanagh, Seamus Heaney, and Derek Mahon.