Poet in Residence
Poetry Ireland / Éigse Éireann established the Poet in Residence role in 2019 to facilitate live and online workshops with people of all ages and backgrounds, readings and events with the local community and schools, and work with partner organisations and the Poetry Ireland team.
About the Poet in Residence
Poetry Ireland / Éigse Éireann established the Poet in Residence role in 2019, as part of an exciting neighbourhood project which engages with the many communities who call Dublin north inner-city home. The poet in residence facilitates live and online workshops with people of all ages and backgrounds, readings and events with local community groups and schools and work in multi-disciplinary settings, partner organisations and with the Poetry Ireland team to present live online readings and public engagement initiatives.
- Catherine Ann Cullen was appointed to the post for a two-year period beginning in October 2019.
- Anne Tannam, our 2023 – 2025 poet in residence, completed work with Poetry Ireland in May 2025.
- Poetry Ireland has just appointed Sean Borodale as the Poet in Residence for 2025 - 2027.
The newly appointed Poet in Residence will be in post in advance of opening Poetry Ireland House, building on the vital connections forged over the previous two residencies. The appointee will activate Poetry Ireland’s new home at No. 11 Parnell Square which will include the Seamus Heaney Poetry Library and build imaginative and creative pathways for both dedicated and new participants and audiences to the world of poetry.
The Poet in Residence is supported by The Adrian Brinkerhoff Foundation.
Poetry Ireland is delighted to announce the appointment of Sean Borodale as its new Poet in Residence.
Sean has been appointed to the post for a two-year period, which will enable Poetry Ireland to forge new creative relationships in the North-East Inner City, as the organisation re-opens its doors at Number 11 Parnell Square and launches The Seamus Heaney Poetry Library early next year.
Sean Borodale works as an artist, writer, and poet. He studied and later taught at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, where he was also until recently Hon. Research Fellow in print and text. He has four collections of poetry published by Jonathan Cape. His debut Bee Journal (2012) was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize and Costa Book Award.
Speaking on his appointment to the role Sean said:
“Thank you to Poetry Ireland and to The Brinkerhoff Foundation for this incredible chance to step in as the third Poetry Ireland Poet in Residence. As Number 11 prepares to open its doors, the residency will be integral to a formative, celebratory moment and I look forward to connecting new communities with the new life of this centre for poetry for the island of Ireland.
I will work to foster new advocates of curiosity and reading, to help to open doors in language, to create catalysts for the inventive and inclusive, to inspire new readers, poets and audiences. An integral part of this residency will be to take bearings and to glean from books that, among which, Seamus Heaney gathered as his personal library, now instated as part of the Library in Parnell Square. This will inspire an immensely exciting programme of research and reading responses.
I look forward to creating a rich and engaging programme of workshops, talks and performances to celebrate and share poetry over the next two years and to launch a series of exciting programmes to engage the poetry-writing public.
I will draw on my long experience of print and binding to help to establish Number 11 as a laboratory for cutting-edge interdisciplinary thinking and practice around poetry, multi-disciplinary research and making – and to equip and inspire a new generation of poets in setting up zines and collective independent publishing projects, and to create settings for exploration of shared voice.
I will be working to engage with communities in the inner city around Parnell Square, to ask together and to discover in practice: what do we want, and what do we need to explore and support our poetic voices?”
Supported by The Adrian Brinkerhoff Foundation, the poet in residence will connect the public with poetry drawing on the new poetry library, to facilitate live and online outreach programmes with people of all ages and backgrounds, readings and events with local community groups and schools, work in multi-disciplinary settings, work with partner organisations, and with the Poetry Ireland team to present readings and public engagement initiatives.
