Sion Mills poet to give inspiring talk during literary lunchtime

A SION Mills poet will soon be lauding the town of Strabane during a literary lunchtime lecture in the Tower Museum.

Part of the Island Voices programme, this year, the lectures, organised by are exploring the theme of ‘home’ in the work of local writers from the English, Irish and Ulster-Scots traditions.

Island Voices features talks by Belfast-born Réaltán Ní Leannáin, Maureen Boyle from Sion Mills, and Alan Millar from the Laggan Valley in East Donegal, the series explores identity and belonging within the context of our shared languages of English, Irish and Ulster-Scots.

Irish Language writer Réaltán Ní Leannáin opened the series with a lecture entitled ‘From Burgu to Belfast’.

The next lecture on Thursday, October 24 will feature Sion writer Maureen Boyle speaking about ‘Writing ‘Strabane’ – Blessing a Town Into Poetry’.

In 2018 Maureen was commissioned by Radio 4 to write a poem on her family’s hometown for a series called ‘Conversations on a Bench’.

Growing up in the village of Sion Mills, it was the nearby town of Strabane which captured Maureen’s imagination. It was where her father had grown up, and her family later moved into the town.

Every aspect of Maureen’s childhood memories are recalled in the poem – from the congested lungs of the mill workers to the smoky smell of her father’s bomb damage sale jackets in the family wardrobe.

In this talk, Maureen will explore the process of the poem’s creation, the motivation to write it, the research involved and the process of translating research into poetry.

An acclaimed poet Maureen won a UNESCO medal for a book of poems in 1979 at the age of 18. She has also won various awards including the Ireland Chair of Poetry Prize, the Strokestown International Poetry Prize, the Fish Short Memoir Prize, the Inaugural Ireland Chair of Poetry Travel Bursary and Awards from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

Commissions include one to write a poem on the Crown Bar in Belfast for the BBC in 2008 and for a poem on a painting in the O’Brien Collection in Washington. Some of her work has been translated into German, Flemish and French.

Those who attend Maureen’s lecture on Thursday, October 24 will get a unique insight into the enduring impact the poet’s hometown of Strabane has had on her life.

All talks in the series are free but booking is essential. Each one will begin at 1pm and there are light refreshments available from 12.30pm.

l To book your place please contact the Tower Museum, T: (028) 7137 2411 or email tower@derrystrabane.com