Foundation Song
Description
'Poetry casts aside the superfluous, so that what's left is reduced to the essential, the urgent, the truthful. Eamon Carr performs this paring back with a tender but unflinching eye. His work contains the unexpected, the lyrical, the shocking ? a combination that's the mark of a poet.'
? Dr. Martina Devlin
Eamon Carr's latest poetry collection, Foundation Song, showcases his lyrical flair, the influence of classic Gaelic verse, his great sense of rhythm and, most of all, his sensitivity to the suffering of the dispossessed, the homeless, the oppressed in a time of war and displacement. Yet there is still hope and faith in the enduring power of love and friendship. This is a book of vivid dreams, startling aislingí.'
? Hugh McFadden
'This provocative and important collection distils Carr's lifetime of experience as a journalist, musician, traveller and activist. His poems are imbued with myth, from Homer to Cú Chulainn, and themes of dispossession, trauma, love and addiction. Despite his unflinching words and often harrowing themes, Carr always leaves us with hope ? 'I have walked among the dead/but never lost belief.'
? Catherine Ann Cullen
More details
Person
Eamon Carr's artistic career began when, inspired by the Liverpool Scene, he returned to Dublin, set up the Tara Telephone collective with Peter Fallon and, in 1969, began editing and publishing Capella, the Book of Invasions broadsheet and Gallery Books. With Tara Telephone musician Declan Sinnott, he became a founding member of the pioneering folk-rock group Horslips, with which he co-wrote and recorded a series of ground-breaking albums. His published work includes The Origami Crow: Journey into Japan, World Cup Summer 2002 and a verse play Deirdre Unforgiven, A Journal of Sorrow (Doire Press). DUSK, a verse drama, was staged in Dublin at the GPO and the New Theatre in 2016 by Red Iron Productions. A journalist and art historian, as part of the Festival of Politics in November 2019,
He presented Seeking Refuge, an exhibition of his photography documenting life in refugee camps on the Kosovo-Albania border in 1999.
The short verse drama, CúChulainn Awakes, filmed remotely during lockdown in 2020, featured in the St Patrick's Festival 2022 and other events. His poetry and lyrics have been recorded by a number of musicians including Henry McCullough (Poor Man's Moon) and Eamonn Dowd (Songs from the Fever Ship).
