Mitchelstown - a sequence
In February 2007, at the age of 47, Maria travelled to her father’s hometown of Mitchelstown, Co. Cork, for the first time. She is grateful to Liam Cusack for his time and efforts before and during the trip, for local and historical detail of Mitchelstown, for helping her to find the boy her father was, and so to understand the man that he became.
‘Windowless’ refers to the burning of Mitchelstown Castle, Co. Cork, in 1922, at the end of the Irish War of Independence. Mitchelstown Creameries, known locally as the Co-op, acquired the site and, later, built a milk-processing factory on the exact location where the castle once stood.
In ‘Two women’, a child born out of wedlock was known as ‘a boy child’ or a ‘girl child’.
‘Mitchelstown - a sequence’ is dedicated to Jim McCarthy, 1928-2000.
‘Ghost Writer’ is in memory of John Trelawny, with whom Maria took the MA in Creative Writing at the University of Kent, 2005-2007. He was an avid self-published author, his most successful work being The Islanders, Beavers’ Press, 2007. Although he professed to ‘not really understand poetry’ (usually when asked to look over some of Maria’s draft poems), he was no mean poet himself, published in Logos, Conversation Poetry Quarterly and in the Night Train series of anthologies.
Thanks are due to Bob Carling, who edited and designed this collection, to Maggie Drury for cover images, logo and encouragement, to the WordAid poets, and to all those who commented on these poems during their gestation and delivery: the MA in Creative Writing class at the University of Kent, 2005-2007; tutors Susan Wicks and Patricia Debney; and members of the ‘Best Words, Best Order’ and ‘Small’ poetry classes taught by Maria in 2009 and 2011.
Strange Fruits Page 4