Irish Writer - Blog Posts
I finished the first draft of my current novel this week!
Don't tell Twitter, but this week I graduated from St. Andrews and am now officially a Doctor of Philosophy! My thesis looked at Gaelic mythology and its relationship with national identity in modern Irish and Scottish literature (including Irish language texts). Humanities ftw!
Comhghairdeas mór to my superhero of a supervisor Pàdraig MacAoidh (Peter Mackay) who was also appointed as the Makar of Scotland this week! So very deserved.
So pleased to have a poem in this beautiful anthology, and what a fantastic launch night it was in O'Connell House last Friday eve!
Had some film developed recently. A few hikes from the summer, namely around the Mournes and in Wicklow. A bonus photo of my friend Roberta on top of the well rock in Dunino Den in Fife – a powerful and ancient place that you could drive right past without ever knowing was there! The area was clearly of significance to the Picts given the carved stone footprint beside the natural well, the Pictish stone and the stairs hewn out of the rock itself. It's a beautiful area. Go if you ever get the chance!
Over the moon to be able to share this essay on the seriously overlooked work of Meath poet Francis Ledwidge.
My poem "Mr Keats is ill" features in VOL. 1: END of Tower Magazine. Available for purchase and/or download now!
New poem in Tower Vol I: End out May 15th!
You can read the opening of my shortlisted novel Hunt the Hare here! If anyone is thinking of going for Discoveries 2023 when entries open later this month, just do it!
Achilles
I
To them I am the brute not the lover
The raging king’s hound, his gold spear – death’s kiss
Was this the way, was there no other?
II
History, prayèrs did try to cover –
Those violent delights, and that violent bliss
- To them I am the brute not the lover.
III
Yet, if time would but only uncover
Those extra curves of your smiles that they miss – I miss.
Was this the way – was there no other?
IV
If the Prince of Troy did not hover over
My mind and your ghost – in debt to the Styx –
To them I am the brute not the lover!
V
They forget romeo, the pre-mover;
Was it for this you died, was it for this?
Alas, I am the brute. Not your lover.
Was this the way? Was there no other?
"Achilles" by Sadbh Kellett. First published in The Attic XX, 2017.
Brigid of the Forge | Culture Night 2021
Brigid of the Forge | Draíocht
A blogpost I wrote last year on such an underrated Irish writer!
So shocked and unbelievably delighted to be shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction's Discoveries 2022 Award!!!
Albero di Limone available in Sonder Issue IV
Brigid of Spring | Draíocht
