About Us

A Few Words About Us

The Limerick Writers’ Centre was founded as a not-for profit organisation in 2008 to support and promote writers from or living in Limerick through readings, workshops and publishing activities. Guided by a voluntary board of directors, the Centre has been a driving force, bolstering the literary community in Limerick and surrounding area.

Up until Covid we supported three Writers’ Groups where writers met and discussed their work and to gather support from their peers. Additionally, a cornerstone of our monthly calendar was the ‘On the Nail’ Literary Gathering, an occasion for writers to showcase their creations to a public audience and receive constructive input. Regrettably, this event, along with other endeavours, had to be put on hold due to the pandemic’s impact.

Our engagement in publishing undertakings not only furnished the Centre with revenue but also facilitated valuable connections with individuals and organisations that proved advantageous to our members. Through our community publishing initiative, we have proudly published over 170 books since our inception, with a notable emphasis on works from new and previously undiscovered writers.

We regularly hold workshops, in poetry, short story and scriptwriting plus we have had literary agents give talks on the business of getting published. Our purpose is to also involve readers and support their engagement with new writing. We try as much as possible to represent diverse voices and advocate for increased writing and publishing access to individuals and groups that have not typically had this access.

Workshops in poetry, short story composition, and creative twriting are part of our regular offerings. Furthermore, we have facilitated talks by literary agents, shedding light on the intricacies of the publishing landscape. Our commitment extends beyond writers, as we actively encourage reader participation and support their interaction with emerging literary works. A core aspect of our ethos revolves around advocating for diverse voices and championing improved writing and publishing accessibility for individuals and groups historically marginalised in these areas.

Central to our identity is the promotion of writing from everyday individuals — those who may not have formal training but possess a desire to translate their ideas onto paper. Our embrace of uniqueness extends to those who might grapple with self-confidence concerning their writing prowess. Our ultimate aspiration is to cultivate an affinity for literature and its transformative power.

At its core, the Limerick Writers’ Centre seeks to offer an inclusive space where writers can convene with creative and educational intentions. From this hub, outreach initiatives can emanate, reaching into schools and communities to ignite the flame of creative innovation. Collaborative ties with existing cultural entities and events also feature in our vision, aimed at showcasing Limerick’s creative eminence on a global stage.

History

Limerick has long been famous for its passion for arts, culture and heritage and you only have to look at some of its natives, which include Pulitzer Prize winning author, Frank McCourt; novelists’ Kate O’Brien, Michael Curtin, Maeve Kelly, Criostoir O’Flynn and lately Kevin Barry and Donal Ryan. Limerick poets have also contributed widely to our literary heritage with Michael Hartnett, Desmond O’Grady, John Liddy and Kieran Beville.

The Gaelic side of Limerick poetry includes Filí na Máighe (the Maigue Poets), Séamas Ó Caoindealbháin, Eithne Strong, Tadhg Gaelach Ó Súilleabháin, Daithí Ó hÓgáin, Art Ó Maolfabhail and Gabriel Rosenstock.18th century Irish-language poetry from the city and county of Limerick may be explored in the book Filí Luimnigh gan Iomrá san Ochtú hAois Déag by Úna Nic Éinrí. Co Limerick is also associated with two of the most important names in Gaelic versecraft, namely Dáibhí Ó Bruadair and Gearóid Iarla; proving that literature and writing is one of the major creative activities that the Treaty City can be proud of.

Beginnings

No surprise then that since 2008 the Limerick Writers’ Centre, from their original  base in Barrington Street, has been nurturing and supporting a new wave of writers by facilitating workshops, readings, talks and engaging in publishing activities. Founded by four people who are actively involved in the literary life of the city; Dominic Taylor, Mike Finn, Dermot Petty and Mark Lloyd the centre is run on a voluntary basis with the day to day running in the hands of Dominic Taylor. The board of directors has undergone some changes since these four founding members got together. Since January 2021 the Centre has moved to 78 O’Connell Street, Limerick.

Since then the board has been joined by Fiona Clark Echlin, a poet playwright and drama teacher, and by Jim Burke, a poet and a founder member of The Stony Thursday Book, Ireland’s longest published poetry journal. Our newest board member is poet and teacher Tommy Collins.

Activities

Workshops have been a central activity of the Centre since its inception; there are regular poetry and prose workshops plus screenwriting, memoir and life writing. Literary talks are also a regular activity where recently, London agent Jo Unwin, revealed the secrets of getting published to a large attendance. Also multi award nominated crime novelist William Ryan (originally from Limerick) conducted a workshop at the Centre on developing characters for the novel.

Our flagship monthly literary gathering On The Nail has been discontinued for the near future, it is hoped to reconstitute again shortly as it regularly drew a large audience. The gathering comprised of guest readers, and an open-mic for anyone who wishes to read their own work. The LWC is also committed to promoting creativity in music and The Acoustic Club takes place in the Record Room, The Commercial Bar, 46/47 Catherine Street, the third Tuesday of every month.

Books

Publishing has also played an important part in the life of the Centre with a number of major projects completed such as Kemmy’s Limerick Miscellany and Luaithreach Angela – a translation of Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes into Irish. The entre also published an anthology on Limerick poet Michael Hartnett , titled I Live in Michael Hartnett, and a recent book The Curious Story of the Limerick by Dr Matthew Potter tells of the connection between Limerick and the five line Limerick verse. We also played an active in Limerick City of Culture and held a series of workshops for senior citizens the end product was an anthology of love stories called The Heart of Limerick, which was edited by Fiona Clark Echlin, Caroline Graham and Sheila Quealey.

Our long running Revival Literary Journal alas is no more due to financial considerations it ceased publishing in December 2013 after 28 issues.

The Centre, through it’s poetry imprint Revival Press, is also very active in publishing contemporary poetry, with over 100 titles published so far. The Centre is also always available to give advice to anyone who wants to self-publish. We also publish fiction, memoir and history through Limerick Writers’ Centre Publishing.

Writers’ Groups (Discontinued for the time being)

One of the most popular activities of the centre has been the peer critique writers’ groups. Once a month writers gather at the Centre to critique one another’s work, the groups are divided into prose/fiction and poetry. The success and popularity of these groups have been very encouraging for aspiring writers and one of our members Pat O’Connor won the Seán Ó Faoláin International Short Story Competition in 2011 and other members have had work published in various anthologies and journals.

Festival

Our annual festival of poetry during April has been going since 2013 and continues to grow. This  month-long celebration of poetry, offers a diverse range of events and programming to promote the values and importance of poets in our culture. This inclusive festival recognizes the contributions that poetry can make to the lives of people of all ages and backgrounds.

Competition

In the summer of 2013 we expanded our ‘Bring Your Limericks to Limerick’ Competition in association with Campus Life Services in UL and this proved hugely successful, our intention is to continue to develop this into a major summer literary festival for Limerick. We also hosted a series of public talks on Great Irish Writers, in association with the Department of English and Literature in Mary Immaculate College. .

Benefits

As awareness of the Centre grows and the range of activities increases, more and more people are beginning to use and appreciate the benefits of having a Writers’ Centre in Limerick. The positive feedback it has generated from people, like Mary Shanahan from Abbeyfeale, who commenting on a recent workshop she attended with Fiona Clark Echlin said “Fiona, you were inspirational”, this is typical of the response we receive from aspiring writers. Also guest readers at ‘On The Nail’ have been very appreciative of our efforts as guest Eleanor Hooker recently commented “Great night at ‘On The Nail’ readings in Limerick. Huge thanks to Dominic Taylor and Limerick Writers’ Centre for making it possible, left you wanting to hear more! The audience was warm and appreciative and yep, bought books too”.

Funding

The Centre occasionally receives a small Arts Council grant under the Festival and Event Investment Scheme for our annual April Festival of Poetry  and has been in the past the recipient of one off event funding from Limerick City and County Council and our long term aim is to become a regularly funded organisation. The centre operates a Patron scheme in which valuable funding is raised to help fund our activities.

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