… was a blast!
The Dublin launch for TIDAL was held on 16 October, along with that for Paul Perry’s Clockhammer.
John Walsh from Doire Press did the intros this time around. Much gratitude to Anne Tannam who launched TIDAL in Capital City: her speech was insightful and generous … just like the woman herself. I can’t speak highly enough of her support. She was so busy and yet found time to write a blurb for the book and to do the honours on the night. Míle buíochas, Anne! I changed the reading list somewhat, reading a couple of poems about my parents that I didn’t trust myself to read during the launch in Clare. And having surprised that crowd with the ballad that is a part of the final sequence ‘And What Else’, John asked me up at the end of the evening to do it again. I wasn’t ready for that!
It was nice to have a double launch. I was up first, then I could sit back and enjoy Paul’s work. We had a full house, in a great venue. It was my first time in the Teacher’s Club. The rooms are fantastic – of course, they’re in a Georgian building! – and the club bar was next door, which was handy for afterwards. Séamus, a pal, was in deep conversation with an older man in the bar as I was heading off. ‘Come here and hear this!’ It turns out that the building we were in had been owned by a well known music and singing teacher, early in the last century. People who had sung in the room we had been in included opera singer Margaret Burke Sheridan, soloist and oratorio singer John McCormack, and James Joyce. I’d sung in the same room as the man himself.
‘I’ll take that!’, I said to Séamus, as I headed off into the Dublin night. What an end to a great evening.
TIDAL is available in independent bookshops, and they will order it in. OR you can buy it directly from the publishers, Doire Press, by clicking here
I’ll be back in Capital City on 6 December – reading at the Irish Writers Centre’s Christmas get-together. There have been offers from a few festivals for next year. But first it’s Galway – the City of the Tribes – next week. You have been warned!
Karen J McDonnell 