Termonfeckin native Lorraine Mc Ardle has won a major award for her poetry at the prestigious Listowel Writers’ Week which took place last week.
Lorraine, who grew up in Termonfeckin but now lives in Dublin, has been a writing poetry for over 40 years, first as a young girl at Termonfeckin National School and then at Our Lady’s College, Greenhills in Drogheda.
She told Drogheda Life that her passion for poetry intensified after she underwent a hip replacement when she was in her mid-forties which was a result of hip surgery as a child and teenager which also gave her the inspiration for her collection which is called ‘Scenes from a Boneyard’.
The Listowel Prize was for a Poetry Collection of 6-12 Poems for a poet yet to publish a first collection, it does not include publication.
Prior to winning the Listowel prize that Lorraine was selected for the Poetry Ireland Introductions Series in 2019 and commended in the 2019 Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine.
She has been published in Poetry Ireland Review, The North, The Interpreter’s House and Skylight 47. Her poems have also been shortlisted for Poems for Patience in 2020 and 2019, and for the Cúirt New Writing Prize 2018.
She had a short play produced by Fishamble Theatre Company as part of their Shorts Festival and has performed in the Dublin Fringe Festival. She is now working towards a first collection.
Listowel Writers’ Week was founded to foster new and exciting talent, to transform the beautiful Kerry heritage town into a literary universe, and make it a literary haven where writers and book-lovers from all corners of the globe gravitate to, for a celebration of literature, cultural experiences and inspiration.
Lorraine McArdle (centre) with her sister Frances Mc Ardle (right), who also lives in Termonfeckin, and her friend Clodagh Ni Ghallachoir, who were there to support her at the Listowel Writers’ Week Awards night.
Each year, this dream of the original founding members, writers, artists and prescient personalities like John B Keane, Bryan MacMahon and Brendan Kennelly is realised through its programme of events, workshops and competitions.
Lorraine told Drogheda life that she was delighted with her win at Writers Week but she doesn’t expect to be giving up her day job which is in a marketing role with Height for Hire the firm founded by her father Harry McArdle back in the early 80’s.
This video shows Lorraine reading the poem that was commended in the Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine Open Competition (judged by Kate Addie) and was also published in the e book with Poetry Ireland called Incredible Things Do Happen which was a collection of poems from the Poetry Ireland Introductions Series 2019.
