Maureen Boyle reflects on poetry and the power of home

Award-winning Tyrone poet Maureen Boyle has spent decades crafting works that blend personal experience with the evocative landscapes of the North.

On Thursday, the Sion Mills woman joined the Island Voices lecture series to explore her connection to Strabane, her family’s roots, and how these themes infuse her poetry with a sense of home, resilience, and history.

Her insights at the lecture at Derry’s Tower Museum offered an intimate look into how a poet’s relationship with place and memory can form a creative compass, guiding them through both their personal and artistic lives.

In 2018, BBC Radio 4 commissioned Maureen to create a poem on Strabane as part of ‘Conversations on a Bench,’ a series that captured the voices and stories of locals. The producers of the series set up a bench in Abercorn Square in Strabane, where they conducted conversations with passersby. Maureen was given the transcripts from these conversations as her source material to create a piece that reflected the community’s character.

Reflecting on this creative process, the Sion lady shared, “It was just fascinating because you found all these common threads in the history of the place, things that went back like the river and the fact the flooding happened over and over again in the past. Also, the fact that it had always been a poor town, there was always poverty for some reason.

“I think it’s something about where it’s positioned between Tyrone and Donegal; hundreds of years ago even before the plantation it was at a crux of the strife between the O’Donnell’s and the O’Neill’s. It always seemed to be a place of difficulty but there is such a warmth in the place. That was one of the things I wanted to record that there is a great spirit in the place.”

Through her poem, ‘Strabane’ – Blessing a Town Into Poetry’ Maureen aimed to convey Strabane’s essence, with all its grit and charm, encapsulating the struggles and the resilience of its residents. Her work became an elegy to the town, a heartfelt portrayal that gave a voice to its silent strength.

STRABANE

Maureen’s ties to Strabane run deep. Her father’s family came from the area, and her mother now lives there, forming a bridge between her childhood memories and her adult reflections. She has fond memories of growing up in nearby Sion Mills, where she experienced what she describes as a “very idyllic childhood.”

She recalls, “It was a very idyllic childhood we grew up just outside the village and in ways our lives were not that far from a Victorian childhood; we walked to school, it was a wee village school, people were still working in the Mill at that time and there was just a great kind of safety in a way. Obviously then the troubles came but we were almost protected from that; we were aware of it, but we were that bit out of town.

“I still love to go back. I love the geography of the place, the mountains and the river.”

POETRY

Maureen’s connection to poetry began early. Her father, a primary school teacher, encouraged a love of language and storytelling.

“I have poems from when I was about six and, in some ways, I wonder how I even knew what a poem was. My father was a primary school teacher at the Glebe he would have ordered nursery rhyme tapes and would have read us wee books, so it was always there in the family.”

By the age of 18, Maureen’s talent was recognised when she won her first award in a UNESCO poetry competition, which marked a formative experience. She recalls her win fondly, saying, “I had a wee book that I put together for a competition for the UN’s year of the child. UNESCO had a poetry competition in the North of Ireland it was run by a lovely man who was a journalist from Limavady called Harry Barton. I ended up winning that and they invited us up to Stormont which in those days was amazing and that was kind of the start.

“That was a lovely thing to happen very early.”

Yet, like many young artists, Maureen struggled with self-confidence. As a first-generation university student at Trinity College, she felt intimidated and soon lost touch with her writing. “I was the first one to go to college, and I was just too intimidated to continue the poetry. I loved Trinity, but I stopped writing, and it took me years to get back to it,” she explained.

A move to London rekindled her interest in writing as she found herself often drawn back to the familiar landscapes of Donegal and Strabane. Her work once again began to take shape around the geography and spirit of her homeland, which had remained ever-present in her thoughts.

But it was her return to Ireland in 1993 that truly brought her back to poetry. Maureen began teaching at St Dominic’s School on Belfast’s Falls Road, where she discovered the Pushkin Prizes, an initiative by Sasha Newton-Stewart, the Duchess of Abercorn, who was related to the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. This creative writing project for schools encouraged teachers and students alike to write, creating a unique environment where Maureen could re-establish her voice.

“She had this idea that if you were standing in front of kids asking them to write then you should be writing as well. It was such a simple idea, but it was brilliant. So, she ran summer schools for teachers to get them writing and that’s how I got back into it again,” Maureen shared.

Among the numerous awards Maureen has garnered over the years, one prize holds particular personal significance. She won the Fish Short Memoir Prize for a deeply personal piece about losing her eye at age six.

“That was very hard to write I tried to write it for a long number of years, and I finally found a way of doing it and that meant a lot. Also, because the artificial eye service here had really deteriorated that piece was a contribution to try to improve it.”

This work, a testament to her resilience and willingness to address painful experiences, captures the emotional depth that characterizes her poetry.

WORK

Today, Maurren continues to write, teach, and lead workshops, inspiring young poets and promoting the power of the written word.

“Poetry by its definition is reflective and quiet and the world is just so noisy it’s hard to find the still space.

“For the poet and the reader, I do think it provides a quiet space. I think it’s as important as ever and people do turn to it in dark times.

“Some poets are activist poets who use poetry politically and to call for change and I think that’s very important.

“Also, language has become so debased; one of the good things about poetry is that every word is so considered, and the language is careful.

“That kind of deliberation is far away from throw away abusive language that you now get on social media.”