CastlePallooza Rocked in the Rain By the Tullamore Rhymers – Failing to Make Fermoy
It is with regret due to work commitments we failed to make the Fermoy International Poetry Festival and the Poetry Bus ran by organiser Gene Barry, but two local events we did get to make were the monthly Scene of the Rhyme in Joe Lees in Tullamore, and of course the famous Castlepalooza festival here in town.
Another event I repeaddly have missed was the LastWednesday series in Dublin, to whichI’d hoped to bring some of the Rhymers. With regretwe learned of the passing of Sarah Sunflower Lunberg who ran the event. May she rest in peace.
Our third time in Charleville Castle, after Shakefest and Facefest,and that’s after missing the Shakefest Artists BBQ, we nearly have a residency there at this stage! This year, the poetry reading was ran under the banner of “Scene of the Rhyme”, whereas last year it was under the Tullamore Rhymers Club itself, which caused its own end of debate behind the scenes, as happens in all good arts groups!
The Tullamore Rhymers Club veteran and MC for the night was Cormac Lally – he of the Be-Spoke wedding speeches scheme – who started off with the Obama poem, and the members done three poems each in the classic revolver maneuver, featuring yours truly, James Delaney, Richard Brennan, conscript Steven Hynes, and the late but better so than never David Mallaghan.
The ones I read were “Distant City, Close Experience“, Give to Me an Angry Sea” and a couple of others. Richard Brennan – also of the Rhymers – done his piece “Saturday”, followed by “Fish on Friday” among others, and Stephen Murphy brought the house down with his by-now viral video “Was It For This?”
Paul Curran brought us on a taxi ride through Dublin, David Mallaghan informed us of issues with unofficial halting sides near the ISS, and Mr Hynes showed up without his pants… again!
It was a follow on of the night in Joe Lees a few days earlier, where again as part of the Rhymers I had done a reading – details below…
Scene of the Rhyme
The monthly Scene of the Rhyme was on the previous Thursday, as always, and featured the usual suspects, plus guests Saul Delmore Philbin Bowman , Eileen O’Toole, David Mallaghan, David Hynes Jimmy O’Connell , Fergus Costelloe, Paul Curran , Thomas Carty , and Paula Flynn among others.
Willie Rimes was missing, assumed still recovering from his expeiences at the family reunion in July.
Fergus was unique, something akin to the D’Unbelievables doing poetry, and I now have to visit that music shop in Nenagh, where there is a lone pliers in the back room, or so we are told! His poetry is of a comedic vein, but interesting in its construction, featuring the refrain feature of the legends of old, where a theme – the infamous pliers in the back room – in repeaded in varying circumstances which helps in the remembering and the retelling.
Elaine O’ Toole read Boukovski,and her infamous verse about “Im going to drown my cat / Or smother him with my pi-i-low/He pissed all round my flat”
The ones I read were Distant City, Close Experience, Saved by the Buttonhole, and “What Could Never Be“