In Pictures: Leading Limerick poet gets boost from top hotel

A LIMERICK writer has had his work exposed to a new audience after one of his poems was placed on the pillow of every room in a hotel.

Management at the Limerick Strand Hotel placed a copy of one of Corbally man Edward O’Dwyer’s poems, ‘The Rain on Cruises’ Street in every one of its 184 rooms.

“It was an idea I never expected, and vastly different to the customary mint,” he laughed, “They used a poem taken from my first collection, a poem very much set in Limerick, with recognisable shop names mentioned.”

At the time, the Strand Hotel were hosting an awards ceremony for its parent company, the MHL Group, so many colleagues from other hotels were staying at the Ennis Road venue.

It came ahead of the launch of Edward’s latest collection in the hotel, which drew people from across Limerick to the top floor of the Strand Hotel.

Entitled Exquisite Prisons, it’s his third release with Salmon Poetry, and was launched by renowned poet and novelist Mary O’Donnell.

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“I’m very proud of it and am excited as it takes its first breaths in the world. There was quite a bit of relief, too, in getting this one out there. There were delays to the book’s publication brought on my Covid, the loss of events, a backlog at the publisher, and many people, I’m sure, experienced similar delays, but the uncertainty was frustrating. I was worried that I would lose the very strong feelings I had for this collection during that time, and maybe I did do, at least in moments, but thankfully those strong feelings are all there again now,” he said.

It’s the first time Edward – the author of a huge number of books now – has been able to launch to a crowd since the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said: “The spirit and energy in the room was palpable, and maybe part of this was down to the joy of having events again, and not on Zoom, which is what poets had to get used to.”

There was a sombre moment with two of the icons of Limerick’s arts works, who have sadly passed away in the last two years, Bertha McCullagh and Joseph Sweeney, both remembered fondly.

Order Edward’s new collection at www.salmonpoetry.com, or call 065-7081941.