The Poetry Programme

7.30pm RTÉ Radio 1

Olivia O’leary welcomes two guests to the show, beginning with John Fitzgerald, who didn’t start writing poetry until he was in his late forties. He won the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Prize for 2014 – while still unpublished – and he’s here to discuss his first full-length collection, The Time Being, to be released by The Gallery Press in June.

Olivia also chats to Frank Ormsby, the current Ireland Professor of Poetry. Talking from his home in Belfast, he discusses his first Ireland Chair of Poetry lecture, and reads from his 2019 collection of poetry, The Rain Barrel, published by Bloodaxe Books.