Today's show is devoted to an in-depth interview with poet Thomas McCarthy, whose Poetry, Memory and the Party: Journals 1974-2014 has recently been published by Gallery Press. The journals span forty years of Thomas McCarthy’s life lived between a modest background and the ‘Big House’ of West Waterford and his immersion in the literary life of Cork against the troubles of a changing Ireland. It's an intimate portrait of a poet's life with all its attendant excitements and frustrations, as well an engrossing account of the literary and social milieu of Cork, the Anglo-Irish world of the Brigadier whose Victorian garden he replanted, and his travels farther afield.
‘For those interested in literature, this is addictive reading material, offering unparalleled insight into the many joys and sundry frustrations of someone who determined early to devote himself to the pursuit of his literary vocation.’ — Clíona Ní Ríordáin, The Irish Times
Thomas's Toaster Challenge choice is Ethel Mannin's Young in the Twenties.
Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry’ from The Hare’s Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it.
Artwork by Freya Sirr
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