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October 26, 2010

Czech Ambassador launches Desmond Egan Poetry Collection

Book Launch - Venue: Newbridge Credit Union, Main Street, Newbridge

ATHLONE ATHLONE by Desmond Egan
Photographs by Noel Finnerty
Launch by HE Tomas Kafka Ambassador of Czech Republic

Angelus of the small place we discover
has left us in exile everywhere else 
someone waves from the front door and turns back in

Athlone AthloneThe Czech flag will be flying in Newbridge on Tuesday November 2nd when the Ambassador visits the town to launch a new Poetry Collection by Desmond Egan.

Part One of this Collection was published in 1980 and quickly sold out. The new edition reprints those poems and also those from the recent Limited Edition of 40 copies. 

Included are Listening to John McCormack (who of course lived in and had many connections with Kildare) hitherto available only in the poster form issued in 1984 for the centenary of the tenor’s birth: In Athlone Athlone Desmond Egan both celebrates the town of his birth and a wide cross-section of its everyday people – and later reflects on the changes that have altered the character of the town where he  was bred, born and reared: hence the double name in the title.

Egan was recently described by Professor Brian Arkins of NUI Galway as ‘a major poet: both midland poet but also universal one’ – a description echoed by many commentators and critics, including  Czech Ambassador Tomas Kafka, who is also a writer.

Two major Collections by Egan have been published in Prague, in Czech and English.
The handsome A4 size of Athlone Athlone  is well suited to feature the fascinating photographs of Noel Finnerty; these alone would make the book a must for all book lovers. There are a couple of especially evocative shots of the midland town in rain, from the lens of this noted photographer-cum-designer.

72 pages  A4 size Paperback    price: €20
Newbridge Credit Union  Tuesday 2nd November   7.30p.m.
Launch by H.E. Tomas Kafke Ambassador of Czech Republic.

Refreshments.  All are welcome.