About the editors
The Roscommon Anthology was launched by Vincent Woods(Poet, Playwright and Broadcaster) in King House Boyle on Thursday, November 21st.
Dublin Launch; Uppercross Hotel Thursday November 28th, 6:30
Readings; Bank of Ireland,
Roscommon December 6th
Launch
John O'Dea
John O’Dea, a Roscommon exile, lives in Sligo where he has been,
until recently, a lecturer in Environmental Science at the Institute of Technology. He has a number of educational and academic publications including a book on radiation in Ireland entitled
Exposure, published in 1997. He has a long involvement in the arts in Sligo, including directorships of the following: Sligo Arts Festival,
Sevenwoods and the Blue Raincoat theatre companies and the Model Arts Centre.
He is currently a member of the boards of the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland and Co. Sligo Youth Theatre.
Michael O'Dea
Michael O’Dea was born in Roscommon town in 1955. Educated at the local C.B.S. school, he later attended University College Galway, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1978. He has published two poetry collections in Ireland, Sunfire (Dedalus Press, 1998) and Turn Your Head (Dedalus Press, 2003). In 2005 a chapbook, Felos ainda serra, was published by Amastra-N-Galar in
Galicia, Spain.
He currently teaches in Rathmines, Dublin, where he is strongly involved in community development.
The Roscommon Anthology is published by The Roscommon Literary Heritage Group
The Roscommon Literary Heritage Group was set up to facilitate the publication of The Roscommon Anthology, to actively promote the development of the associated ‘Celebration of Roscommon’s Writers Literary Trail’ and to promote the literary cultural heritage of County Roscommon.
RLHG can be contacted at roscommonlhg@gmail.com
Foreward - Prof Mary McAleese
President of Ireland 1997 - 2011
...This anthology acknowledges not just those born in Roscommon, but also those who came to live in the county and fell under the spell of its landscape, people and culture. My own favourite, David Thomson, who immersed himself in the world and people he discovered at Woodbrook and whose elegant chronicle of those times never fails to move me time after time in the rereading. In more recent times M.F. Ó Conchuir from Clare and Ann Joyce from Mayo, both revisited the tragic Úna Bhán in their own writings. Alice Lyons and Gerry Boland came to North Roscommon and found there a place where they could settle and be inspired to write wonderfully.
Apart from the great pleasure in reading these pages, this is an important publication, not just for Roscommon, but for the country as a whole: it draws timely attention to a strong and beautiful thread that is deeply woven into the golden tapestry that is Ireland’s literary heritage. I am so grateful to all those who made it possible to showcase Roscommon in this lovely and accessible way. Enjoy it!