Description
The National Museum of Ireland / Ard-Mhúsaem na hÉireann is a repository of memory – but also a living place that enriches and challenges the present, that preserves for the future a witness to who we have been. We invited more than forty poets, writing in both English and Irish, to visit any of the Museum’s four collections – Archaeology in Kildare Street, Natural History in Merrion Street, Decorative Arts & History in Collins’ Barracks, Dublin, and Country Life in Turlough Park, Co. Mayo – and to write a poem prompted by this visit. The resulting poems in this anthology are inspired by, in conversation with, the Museum itself and those artefacts and objects from its collections that have engaged the imagination of the poets as they have engaged the imaginations of countless visitors through the years.
“What We Found There reveals itself as a surprisingly rich and inventive collection giving us a vivid snapshot of the contemporary Irish poetic scene, whose diversity it powerfully captures. Hopefully, it will prompt readers both to revisit the museums they have frequented over the years, and to (re)discover poets with whom they may not be very familiar. An enjoyable volume, it deserves to find its place on the bookshelves of anyone with an interest in contemporary poetry, as well as in Ireland’s cultural past.”
—Florence Impens, The Trumpet
ISBN 9781906614867 Paperback
127 x 203 mm, 100 pp
2013