Enjoy a Christmas Miscellany with Mayo poet and musician

Come along to Westport Civic Trust’s Christmas Miscellany in the Sean Staunton Room, Westport Town Hall, at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, December 10, where Ger Reidy will introduce poems from his latest collection, Clay, with musical accompaniment by Diarmaid Moynahan.

As one who grew up in the Mayo countryside, Ger writes with a sensitive eye on nature and landscape and the people within it. And with the eye of a civil engineer, as in his poem ‘Disorder’:

‘Beyond the manicured lawns/ the barbarians are waiting,/ plotting the infiltration/ like that ash seed growing in the path./ Soon it will burst the hearth with roots,/ inviting the forests to reclaim/ the houses, the roads, the cities…’

He uses language to listen to the falling leaf, the feeble sun, the stillborn lamb, the rusty gate.

Ger has published several award-winning collections and his poems have been published in the Irish Times, and spot them inscribed on rocks in Rosmoney and benches in Westport too! Much of his poetry is a celebration of living in Mayo.

Diarmaid Moynihan is widely acknowledged as one of Ireland’s foremost uilleann pipers. His music has featured on TG4, BBC, RTÉ and Lyric FM. He is a highly respected teacher with master-classes in Italy, the USA, Germany, Finland and Australia and has taught at University College Cork, University of Limerick and The Cork School of Music.

Ger and Diarmaid will present a seamless blend of music and poetry to cheer everyone up for the Christmas season.