Irish Poetry Reading Archive
The Irish Poetry Reading Archive is a free, web-based library that holds recordings of Irish poets reading their own work.
The archive captures and preserves the rich and diverse landscape of poetry in Ireland, including the voices of established poets; emerging poets; performance poets; avant-garde poets; English and Irish language poets; and Irish diaspora poets. Many of the readings are accompanied by handwritten transcriptions of the poem, created by the poet especially for the archive. These are digitised and made available, alongside the videos.
Preserving the voices of the poets, in a curated secure digital archive, ensures they are available for future generations to listen to. Hearing the poem in the authors’ voice, with their own inimitable style, accent, inflection, with their use of shade and nuance, enhances the listeners' understanding and appreciation of the poems. Poets also provide a brief overview of the context and circumstances that influenced the writing of each of their poems.
Recordings created especially for the Irish Poetry Reading Archive are initially uploaded to the UCD Special Collections YouTube channel and then uploaded to the UCD Digital Library where preservation is assured.
With the voices of almost 40 poets being added annually, this growing collection is becoming an important resource of national scope and significance. Built up over time it will serve a national and international community or readers and scholars with interests in Irish poetry. The Irish Poetry Reading Archive is very grateful to the poets who are already featured in the archive, who have generously and freely given of their time.
If you are interested in learning more about the archive, please contact ursula.byrne@ucd.ie