A Corner of the Burren
Poet Moya Cannon explores a corner of the Burren that has inspired her poems for more than 30 years, meeting experts in the local landscape, archaeology and history. Though her first encounter with the Burren was in a children’s book by Patricia Lynch, she did not set foot on its hills until years later. By then she had come across Tim Robinson’s map of the Burren and through it discovered a magical corner: the triangle formed by Corcomroe Abbey, St. Colman’s Well, Oughtmama and the ‘Seven Churches’.
Throughout the programme we hear poems by Moya from her Collected Poems and her most recent collection, Bunting’s Honey, both published by Carcanet.
Something about Oughtmama
makes me want to lie quietly down
in its tangles of flowers and grasses,
forget sorrow, and then carry on.
(from the poem ‘Oughtmama’)
Producer: Claire Cunningham, Rockfinch
Series producer: Eoin O Kelly
Production Coordinator: Michael O’Kane
Made with funding from the RTÉ IRP and Coimisiún na Meán from the television license fee.
Music in the programme is from the albums Down from Bell Harbour and The Flowing Tide from the late concertina player Chris Droney performed by Chris Droney and Jacinta McEvoy.
RTÉ lyric fm, Sunday 5th October, 6pm-7pm
