No poetry jukebox for Kilcullen

A request to have a poetry jukebox visit Kilcullen Library was unsuccessful at the recent meeting of the Kildare-Newbridge MD, writes Brian Byrne. The matter had been raised by motion by Cllr Tracey O'Dwyer, but she was told there are no plans to bring the initiative to Co Kildare.

Officials said they had contacted the organisers of the Poetry as Commemoration Project — Poetry Ireland and UCD — but were told that there are only two such installations on tour, and these will only be visiting locations in Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Waterford, Galway, Limerick and Derry.

However, the councillor was informed that creative writing workshops are planned for 2023 as part of the project, in which Kildare Library Service hopes to connect the public with local primary source materials from the War of Independence and Civil War.

The poetry jukeboxes enable members of the public to listen to a curation of 20 poems relating to the events that led to the establishment of the Free State and the Civil War. Each Jukebox will stay in situ for three months and contains a selection of poems in English and Irish by well known poets such as Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, W B Yeats and John Hewitt, as well as lesser known writers such as Agnes O’Farrelly (Úna Ní Fhaircheallaigh) and Mary Devenport O’Neill.

The Poetry Jukebox initiative was developed in cooperation with Ondřej Kobza, a Prague-based cultural activist focused on the animation of public space.

He created a steel structure, styled to recall a gramophone or speaking trumpet, where anyone car hear a poet read their own poem, anytime, free, by just pressing a button. The first one on the island was installed in Belfast in 2017.

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