The Shaky Bridge
The poet Louis de Paor grew up in Cork but has not lived there for many years. In The Shaky Bridge he goes back to explore how the Cork of his childhood, and especially the Cork that his father knew, runs throughout his poetry. This is the second of two programmes for Seachtain na Gaeilge in which bilingual Irish poets reflect on working and living in both Irish and English.
Some forty years since he last lived in Cork, Louis de Paor goes back to where he spent his childhood, recalling family and places that he knew, and some of the Cork writers who would influence his work. He walks the streets of Cork city with local historian Diarmuid Ó Drisceoil, talks with Claire Ní Mhuirthile about the writers Liam Ó Muirthile (her late brother) and Seán Ó Ríordáin, and reminisces with Dónal Gallagher, brother of the guitarist Rory Gallagher. They compare childhood experiences of learning Irish, and poems by Louis de Paor in Irish and in English translation are woven throughout the programme. Louis reflects on how, even after so many decades spent elsewhere, the city and its environs still haunt his poetry.
Louis de Paor’s poetry is published by Bloodaxe Books and Cló Iar-Chonnacht and the English translations of the poems are by Kevin Anderson, Biddy Jenkinson, Mary O’Donoghue and Louis de Paor. Produced by Claire Cunningham,
Sound supervision by Tinpot Productions.
A Rockfinch Production for RTÉ lyric fm supported by Coimisiún na Meán’s Sound and Vision broadcasting funding and RTÉ Independent Radio Productions.
RTÉ lyric fm, Sunday 16th March, 6pm-7pm
