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President Michael D. Higgins Reveals RTÉ’s A Poem for Ireland – Ireland’s Best-Loved Poem of the Past 100 years

 

This iconic poem, which was selected by the public as its Poem For Ireland, was revealed in front of a live audience during a special filming of The Works which will be aired this Friday 13 March at 8:30pm on RTÉ One.

Seamus Heaney’s son Mick Heaney noted:We are delighted and honoured that my father’s sonnet When All the Others Were Away at Mass has been voted by the public as the Poem For Ireland, particularly given the magnificent shortlist it was part of. Dad was never happier than when reading or writing poetry, so for his work to be part of a project that shows the sweep of Irish poetry and underlines its crucial part in our culture is a wonderful tribute to his life and work, for which our family are truly grateful.

Glen Killane, Managing Director, RTÉ Television commented:“RTÉ’s A Poem For Ireland project was all about celebrating one of the things we do best as a nation. The thousands of thoughtful and considered responses from the public to the initial call for nominations and to the ten shortlisted poems is clear evidence of just how much poetry means to us as a people. We hope that this project will, like Ireland’s Favourite Painting, encourage more people to read, buy and enjoy Irish poetry – and that the RTÉ A Poem For Ireland poems will remain among our best-loved for generations to come.”

 

Maureen Kennelly, Poetry Ireland commented:  A Poem for Ireland has made people trip across poetry and it has joined the art form to public life. This national celebration of Irish poetry has significantly enhanced Poetry Ireland’s own ambition to make poetry an essential part of everyday life.”

 

Anna McHugh, Head of Communications, An Post, said: A Poem for Ireland has been a truly inclusive exercise. By working in tandem with the online activity, An Post is pleased to have encouraged so many people of all ages, backgrounds and interests to participate. Our job was to make it easy for everyone to get involved and to enjoy developing or renewing their own personal relationship with poetry. An Post customers and staff certainly embraced the opportunity with vigour, taking great pride in all these poems”.

RTÉ’s A Poem For Ireland cross-platform campaign began last September with a call-out to the public to nominate their best-loved Irish poems of the past 100 years. This hugely popular and successful project saw over 440 poems nominated by the public late last year. A carefully selected jury were then tasked with whittling the nominations down to just ten poems, which reflected the public’s most popular choices but also reflected the fuller story of Irish poetry from the past 100 years.

The ten shortlisted poems were:

1)    A Christmas Childhood by Patrick Kavanagh

2)    A Disused Shed in Co. Wexford by Derek Mahon

3)    Dublin by Louis MacNeice

4)     Easter 1916 by William Butler Yeats

5)    Fill Arís by Seán Ó Ríordáin

6)    Filleadh ar an gCathair by Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh

7)    Making Love Outside Áras an Uachtaráin by Paul Durcan

8)    Quarantine by Eavan Boland

9)    The Statue of the Virgin at Granard Speaks by Paula Meehan

10)  When all the others were away at Mass  [from Clearances in memoriam M.K.H., 1911-1984] 3, by Seamus Heaney

When the final ten poems were announced in late January, voting by the public began in earnest, with people from Ireland and all over the world voting for their best-loved of the ten. Over the next five weeks, all ten poems were featured on RTÉ television’s The Works and on RTÉ Radio One’s The John Murray Show, and in full on RTÉ’s A Poem For Ireland website, which also featured performances of each poem by past and current finalists of Poetry Aloud, the national poetry-speaking competition for secondary school children.

The campaign was passionately debated on radio, TV and online as people discussed why each poem merited being named Ireland’s best-loved poem of the past century. Irish embassies and consulates across the globe also got behind the campaign, many tweeting lines from different poems each day. Votes were received from 59 countries including Poland, Bahamas, the United States, Australia and Malaysia.

And from this Ireland’s best-loved poem of the past 100 years was finally revealed in the Royal Irish Academy today by President Michael D Higgins as Seamus Heaney’s When All The Others Were Away at Mass  [from Clearances III – In Memoriam M.K.H., 1911-1984]. Immediately after the announcement, the poem was performed by Scion Flanagan from Mary Immaculate Secondary School, Lisdoonvarana, Co.Clare, to a delighted president and audience. The full ceremony can be seen, together with an interview with President Higgins, in a special edition of The Works this Friday at 8.30pm on RTÉ One.

For further information:
http://apoemforireland.rte.ie//  / http://www.rte.ie/tv/theworks/  / http://www.rte.ie/tv/theworks/ https://www.facebook.com/RTEAPoemForIreland   / https://twitter.com/rtepoetry

—ENDS—

Date: 11 March 2015

For information or interviews contact:

Sinead Harrington, RTÉ Press Officer, Television, 01-208-2667, 087-666-9311, email sinead.harrington@rte.ie
OR
Sandra Byrne, RTÉ Senior Press Officer, Radio, 01-208 2506, 087-249-3048, email Sandra.byrne@rte.ie

NOTE TO EDITOR:

Images will be sent to pictures desks by Andres Poveda on behalf of RTÉ.

Special Advisor to the Campaign
Niall MacMonagle

Niall MacMonagle is a writer, lecturer, critic and broadcaster. He taught English at Wesley College Dublin and writes a weekly art column for the Sunday Independent. He has edited several anthologies including Lifelines, Real Cool, Outside In, Slow Time, Off the Wall, The Open Door Book of Poetry and the textbooks TEXT: A Transition Year English Reader and the Poetry Now anthologies for Leaving Cert. He has served on the Board of the National Library of Ireland. Niall also founded the Poetry Aloud competition twenty-one years ago, a national competition which encourages school children to perform poetry, and which last year saw children from over 1,600 schools participating.


The Jury
John Kelly (Chair)

Writer and broadcaster John Kelly presents RTÉ Television’s flagship arts show, The Works. He also presents The John Kelly Ensemble on RTÉ lyric fm and Radio Clash on RTÉ 2XM. Over the years, John has interviewed many leading figures in the music and arts world and has written several books including From Out of the City, published in April 2014 by Dalkey Archive Press.

Catriona Crowe
Caitriona Crowe is Head of Special Projects at the National Archives of Ireland. She is also a member of the Royal Irish Academy and Adjunct Professor of History at the University of Limerick. She contributes regularly to the broadcast and print media on cultural and historic matters.

Damien Dempsey
Damien Dempsey is often described as an urban poet. He has been an avid fan of poetry from a young age and his lyrics draw on the works of a wide range of poets and writers, both from Ireland and beyond.

Anne Doyle
Anne Doyle is a native of County Wexford. She was educated in Loreto, Gorey, and UCD, where she studied English and History before later completing a postgraduate diploma in Education. Anne spent a year as an English and History teacher, but her love of books and literature led her to take up a job as a librarian. Throughout a distinguished career in broadcasting, Anne’s love for literature and, in particular, poetry has remained constant.

John FitzGerald
John FitzGerald is a graduate of UCC (BA in English and Philosophy, 1983), University College Dublin and the University of Wales at Aberystwyth. He is the University Librarian at UCC. In his professional roles, John has consistently fostered and promoted literary activities – around poetry in particular – most recently in acquiring for UCC The Great Book of Ireland.

Dr. Maria Johnston
Maria Johnston received her Doctorate in English Literature in 2007 and has since worked as a Lecturer at Trinity College Dublin, the Mater Dei Institute (DCU) and Oxford University. She is a well-known poetry critic and is currently working on a book on contemporary Irish poetry.

Dr. Rióna Ní Fhrighil

Dr. Rióna Ní Fhrighil is a lecturer in the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures in the National University of Ireland, Galway. She teaches contemporary Irish-language prose and poetry at both undergraduate and postgraduate level