This reading is presented in association with Poetry Ireland and was first produced by Poetry Ireland to mark the publication of The Translations of Seamus Heaney, edited by Marco Sonzogni and published by Faber and Faber.

Hosted by Niall MacMonagle, we hear a selection of poems read in their original language, with the translations interpreted by renowned actress Eleanor Methven; these readings are punctuated by musical interludes performed by the talented traditional folk duo Zoe Conway and John Mc Intyre.

Niall MacMonagle, writer, broadcaster, critic, has edited several anthologies including the Lifelines series, TEXT A Transition Year English Reader, the Poetry Now Leaving Cert textbooks, Windharp, Poems of Ireland since 1916 and Paul Durcan, 80 at 80. He writes a weekly art column in the Sunday Independent and in 2017 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by UCD for services to literature.

One of Ireland’s foremost actresses, Eleanor Methven co-founded the award-winning Charabanc Theatre Company, with whom she researched and co-devised seven new stage plays, which toured nationally and internationally.  She has since worked extensively in the Irish Theatre and received an E.M.A. and three Irish Times Awards for her Stage work, has also been nominated for an Irish Film and Television Award and is a regular on both media. In 2017, she was awarded The Irish Times Special Tribute Award. Recent work includes:- The Abbey Theatre site-specific production of Patrick Kavanagh’s The Great Hunger at IMMA; Prospero in Rough Magic’s production of The Tempest for Kilkenny Arts Festival; Aunt Bridie in Derry Girls; Connell’s Granny in Normal People; Olwen in Fair City, and Lois Dunlop in Hope Street for the BBC. She is currently reprising her role as Dymphna in filming the second series of Virgin/TV3’s Faithless. She is a regular reader for Poetry Ireland and at Seamus Heaney: Listen Now Again, and is also the Curator of Rising to Reconciliation – an evening of Irish poetry, music, and visual art responding to the era from Partition to the Good Friday Agreement;  and of A Further Shore – responding to The Troubles and to the Peace. Commissioned by the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, these were produced by Poetry Ireland in The Abbey Theatre Dublin; Grand Opera House Belfast; Marketplace Theatre Armagh; the Lyric Theatre Belfast, and the Barbican Centre London.

With an exciting blend of eclectic fiddle and guitar music, Zoë Conway and John Mc Intyre bring to the stage sympathetic arrangements of traditional Irish music, compositions and songs, old and new.  The husband and wife folk duo possess a rare facility to draw pieces into their repertoire from other genres such as classical, jazz and world music and express this material in a way which not only displays the sheer range and knowledge of both instrumentalists but also exhibits the wonderful versatility of their instruments. They have released three outstanding recordings to date – Live in Concert, a superb collection of live European performances which showcases their mesmerising musical interaction on-stage, and also reveals some of their more virtuosic repertoire outside of the Irish traditional genre.  Relaxed and atmospheric, the respect and understanding that they have of traditional Irish music and song also shines through. “Simply one of the best folk duos on the planet” (BBC).