The Meath Writers' Circle Video (1) January 2013

Paul Martin

Paul Martin reads "Tears" from the October recordings with Ronan Gorry. Paul has a number of other videos posted further back and well worth a look A member of The Meath Writers' Circle for a good many years he is hopefully gathering those poems for a collection later in the year. No pressure! 

Dane-Geld (A.D. 980-1016)

From Songs written for C.R.L. Fletcher's "A History Of England" poem from The Wordsworth Poetry Library~The Works of Rudyard Kipling~.

From poetrybyheart.org
Google Images

Dane-Geld (A.D. 980-1016)

It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation

To call upon a neighbour and to say:-

"We invaded you last night-we are quite prepared to fight,

Unless you pay us cash to go away."

And that is called asking for Dane-geld

And the people who ask it explain

That you've only to pay 'em the Dane-geld

And then you'll get rid of the Dane.

It is always a temptation to a rich and lazy nation

To puff and look important and to say:-

"Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the

time to meet you.

We will therefore pay you cash to go away."

And that is called paying the Dane-geld

But we've proved it again and again

That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld

You never get rid of the Dane.

It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation

For fear they should succumb and go astray;

So when you are requested to pay up or be molested

You will find it better policy to say:-

"We never pay any-one Dane-geld

No matter how trifling the cost

For the end of that game is oppression and shame

And the nation that plays it is lost!"

Rudyard Kipling.

A little something for the times we live in and with apologies to our Nordic cousins who are very good looking indeed.

The Next Big Thing!

The Next Big Thing is an online blogging chain where writers get to answer a series of questions about their next big project or book or whatever it is they intend or hope to achieve in the coming months or, even further out and brings a focus to that if only for themselves, though hopefully others!

Tagged in by Orla Fay  who was tagged by James lawless and back it goes. Orla is vice-chairperson of The Boyne Writers Group in Trim and is a member of the editorial board on their literary magazine "Boyne Berries". Orla is a winner of numerous awards for her poetry and short stories and is published widely both at home and abroad. 

My Next Big Thing

Man proposes eh... well for the next year I'd like to get the Meath Writers' Circle up and running again, since Tommy passed away things have been quiet. Also I'd settle for one good poem for the year and a project I'd like to get off the ground is a "good" video of Meath poets and writers, or at least the ones in the group. 

What is the working title?

Let it find its own if it happens or maybe I'll borrow from one of the poems. I'm sure something in the content will decide that one though I have an idea in mind.

Where did the idea come from?

Well someone was foolish enough to give me one of those digital cameras and over the past two years I managed to record most people who came in to the group even when the light wasn't great! Posted on the blog and if you scroll back some there's all sorts of shapes and shades. At our last meeting in November I recorded Tommy reading one of his poems and worth a look. Also managed to record Orla reading at the launch of her chapbook "Drawn to the Light" at the Knightsbridge Village back in June or July 2012. "The Burial of Alice de Fir"  Go look see, on the blog.

What genre would it fall under?

What indeed, "Poetry and Place" Good enough!

A one sentence synopsis 

A selection of poems on people and their place.

What other projects would you compare it to?

There doesn't seem to be anything else of its type out there at least not in DVD form, not what I have in mind anyway which may not count for anything. But it is an idea that would make a lovely book as well if anyone was prepared to go to the trouble. Something for the coffee table, for those who can afford one.

Who or what inspired you on this project?

That's a good question, maybe things just happen or you tend towards them, a season for everything.  I wrote a poem or two on that and what you think might be your own ideas or whatever.... Marionettes..The stall laid out, trinket and tawdry fare, marionettes dancing, and one blind to another threatening...Anyway still sure it was your idea?

What else might pique the readers/viewers interest?

It's nice to see people reading their poems as well as hearing them or reading them off the page yourself. You can get a better feel for them when the artist is involved. Too often when others read a poem they miss that certain something that brings it to life. As well as that you get to see the author!

When and how will it be published/pressed/copied/ready.

I wish you hadn't asked me that, in the summer or when the light is good, or when I acquire a little more technical competence or the money holds out, or if it is meant to be, over to you Michael!

Tagging out! Michael Sheils 

Michael "The Sheriff" Sheils who comes from Navan Co. Meath left school as a youngster in 1962 aged 13 years. Michael has had a colourful life, you could say he attended the school of hard knocks having laboured on building sites throughout London in the 1970's. Michael has also been a soldier and later a hard rock miner. He is a member of both The Meath Writers' Circle and the Small Impact Writers' Group who are based in Navan. In 2005 Michael self published a book "Short Trousers Days in Navan" looking back on his early days in the town and he also mentions his days as a member of the: FCA, the British Army and Tara Mines. Michael is currently writing a collection of short stories and poems that he hopes to publish later in this year and he is also working on a work of fiction. Looking  back at what they said about his book there  are more that a few interesting comments especially from Noel Dempsey on schooling in Navan and that some of the stories explained to him why the campaign for the ending of corporal punishment started in the town. 

A Quote on Virtue!

A Quote on Virtue!

Once upon a time on an afternoon when I should have been doing something else I happened across a copy the Oxford Book of Quotable Quotes or something like that and very entertaining it was and funny what you remember, but this piece seemed to stand out. Mind you it had some competition from Shakespeare and Johnson and Churchill, O'Connell I think, Shelley and many others. I came across a reference to it the other day while slinking through wikipedia and a few other sites and it's actually an excerpt from Areopagitica A speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing to the Parliament of England, or so they tell me! A quote on virtue. I''ll have to get off this tack.

John Milton.
From Google Images

I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue

Unexercised and unbreathed

That never sallies out and sees her adversary

But slinks out of the race

Where that immortal garland is to be run for

Not without dust and heat

Assuredly we bring not innocence into the world

We bring impurity much rather,

That which purifies us is trial

And trial is by what is contrary. 

John Milton.

The Meath Writers' Circle Jan 2013

Meeting Navan Library.

The Meath Writers' Circle had their first get together last night since the sad passing of Tommy Murray in November and about ten people turned out on what was a very cold night to decide where, or to what next! A word of thanks to Tom French and the staff of the library for providing the room and at such short notice. and greatly appreciated. The next meeting will be in The Trim Castle Hotel on Thursday the 7th of February at 7.30 pm and hopefully everyone will attend. 

Photos: (1) Sean Kane, Willie Hodgins, James linnane, Carmel Murray and Eugene Kane.

              (2) Carmel Murray, Tess Ryan and James Linnane.

Les Misérables 25th Anniversary - Do You Hear the People Sing?

Kilmessan's Killian Donnelly above in the Les Mis 25th Anniversary show plays the part of Combeferre in the movie release which is out this week. Blonde guy to the right! A member of a very musical family he played all the male main characters in the stage show in London. He makes his living these days in the West End though with strong connections to the St Mary's Musical Society in Navan where he learned his trade. Meath Chronicle article this week! The film has had four Golden Globe Nominations for Best Motion Picture and has been hailed as a masterpiece but yet to see! Cosmos Landesman in today's Culture Magazine in The Sunday Times describes the acting as outstanding. His sister Eimear and brother Ciaran are both actively involved in the music scene and are fine singers and performers. With thanks to youtube and the guy who posted.

An Ode to Austerity

An Ode to Austerity.

Well maybe to the bringers of it, but anyway I was stuck for a title. I came across this in the Finn Valley People or a version of it. Anyway this is how I remember it from the school books and in relation to the article that has gone before, a perfect riposte to those who would come demanding money with menaces. Story: In 1461 The O'Neill demanded tribute from Aodh O'Donnell who didn't take kindly to it and replied with the following. (When men were men)

No hawk no hound

No steed no steer

O'Neill gets from me

No homage yield

No tribute send

No vassal clan are we

Though he is lord of Clandeboye

And chieftain of Tyrone

Yet I am prince in Donegal

Let each man hold his own.

Maybe I'll go looking for another one. Never know what I'd find. 

The Year Of The Blight!

 The Year Of The Blight!

If an Englishman's home has long ceased to be his castle then an Irishman's was or at least until the  introduction or advent of a tax  on something that puts a roof over your head. The argument for broadening the tax base and that in every other country or every comparable one there is something of its kind is a poor one in that in most other countries they enjoy benefits and services that are foreign to this neck of the woods if you'll pardon the pun and where they don't well if your neighbour is going to hell why follow him.

There is an important principle here with regard to ownership or what you might aspire to in that sense and whether you live in a hovel or that house on the hill if you are subject to a levy on what should be a right ~the family home~ then you are only a subject and that to a "debt" you can never clear. It's called slavery! Now if you are inordinately wealthy or otherwise disposed you may put some distance between yourself and those chains and they may not weigh so heavy but they are still chains.

Putting that aside, a charge for services you may never receive or benefit from and out here in the sticks there is little to benefit from is sharp practice at best and I would have thought illegal. But none of the above addresses the awful inequity of it all in that it is a further imposition on those who can least afford to pay but sure the poor will always be with us.... The cheerleaders in the media, what can you say?