Leanne O'Sullivan
Doireann NÃ GhrÃofa
Thomas McCarthy
Hugo Hamilton
Theo Dorgan
Published: November 2016
128 pages
Available as Paperback
Category: Humanities
Seven people signed the Proclamation of the Republic in 1916 - four of them were poets. To commemorate its centenary, Cork City Council has commissioned four of Ireland's leading contemporary writers to reflect on the meaning of this single most important artefact of the 1916 Rising.
'We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies.'
'The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens.'
Did it ever live up to the idealistic aspirations it pronounced? Does it still have a message for us, 100 years after it was written? Read the reflections of four Irish writers on how it resonates today.
Theo Dorgan is a poet, novelist, non-fiction writer, editor, broadcaster and scriptwriter. He has published five books of poetry. Doireann Ni Ghriofa, a bilingual writer, has won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature 2016, the Michael Hartnett Prize and the Ireland Chair of Poetry bursary. Hugo Hamilton grew up with three languages - Irish, English and German - and his fiction often sutures these cultures into points of intersection.Leanne O'Sullivan has published three collections of poetry. She has won the Ireland Chair of Poetry bursary, the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and the Lawrence O'Shaughnessy Award for Irish Poetry.Thomas McCarthy, the editor, is a poet, novelist and critic. He has published seven collections of poetry and two novels.