Readers and Contributors

Conor Caldwell reads Laundry, Butting In, Shoe and Sweet Rosemary.

Jan Carson is a writer and community arts development officer currently based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She has a BA in English Literature from Queen’s University Belfast and an MLitt. In Theology and Contemporary Culture from St. Andrew’s University, Scotland. Jan has had short stories published in literary journals on both sides of the Atlantic, has had two of her plays produced for the Belfast stage and is a current recipient of the Arts Council NI’s Artist’s Career Enhancement Bursary. Her first novel, Malcolm Orange Disappears was published by Liberties Press, Dublin, in 2014.

You can read her blog at: www.jancarsonwrites.wordpress.com

Tom Clarke is an Uilleann piper and Irish speaker originally from Co. Donegal. He now lives in Belfast. Tom translated some of the Vernacularisms into Irish for a bilingual walk we did together as part of Féile An Droichead and Household Festival in August 2013. He has continued the project since. You can read his translations here.

Pól Deeds runs the successful An Droichead Irish language arts and education project in South Belfast. He was awarded a doctorate from the University of Ulster in 2005 for his research and reassessment of the poetry of Seán Ó Ríordáin. He has published several poems in journals and an essay on the postmodern aspects of Ó Ríordáin’s poetry.

Linda Ervine Linda Ervine is the Irish Language Development Officer in East Belfast. She is married to ex-PUP leader Brian Ervine and has 3 children and 4 grandchildren. You can read about Turas here.

Joby Fox reads The Road to Damascus, Those Were the Days, my Friend, and Special Delivery. Joby is a songwriter, musician, and film director from Belfast, where he lives. He was a founder member of The Bankrobbers and Energy Orchard. Over the course of his career he has worked with a variety of artists, including Steve Earle and Lee “Scratch” Perry, as well as notable producers Mick Glossop and John Brand. Joby is currently working on a new album, The End of the War, and debuted a short film, Lost Commandos, at the 2012 Belfast Festival at Queen’s. You can find out more on Joby’s website:  http://www.jobyfox.com/

Mary Hughes reads Baby Boom.

Susan Hughes reads Special Delivery, Big Fish, and Parklife. Susan is a visual artist from Belfast, where she lives.

Tom Hughes reads Süskind.

Fiona Larkin is an artist working in a variety of media from video to drawing. She holds a BA from N.C.A.D. and received an MFA from the University of Ulster. She lived and worked in Belfast for ten years but is currently based at Baltic 39 in Newcastle Upon Tyne. Her website is here.

Brian McClelland is a long-established artist and designer. You can read about him and look at his work here: http://www.mcclelland-artwork.com/

Mike McGuire: I’m a Limerickman who has spent half his life in Australia and keeps a blog at http://michaelmcguire.com.au featuring poetry and other works. I’m both delighted and honoured to be invited to publish as a guest at Jason O’Ruairc’s Vernacularisms.

Maria McManus reads Moon Childand Consuming Passions. Maria is a poet and playwright from Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh. She currently lives in Belfast. Her most recent work is a collection of poems entitled We Are Bone, which was published by Lagan Press in 2013. The Cello Suites (Lagan Press 2009), which has been recorded with an original score composed and played by cellist Tom Hughes (also a Vernacularisms reader). Reading the Dog (Lagan Press 2006) her first collection of poetry, was runner up in the 2007 Strong Awards at the Poetry Now International Festival and was also short-listed for the 2007 Glen Dimplex New Writers Award.  In 2008 she was awarded an Arts Council individual artist award. Her new collection, We are Bone was published in 2013. In 2005 she was awarded the inaugural Bedell Scholarship for Literature and World Citizenship, by the Aspen Writers’ Foundation, Colorado USA. In 2008 she co-wrote Bruised for Tinderbox Theatre Company. In 2006/07 she was playwright on attachment to Tinderbox.  Previous theatre credits include His n Her’s and Nowhere Harder for Replay Theatre Company, and The Black-Out Show for Red Lead Arts. Maria’s Blog is here: http://mariamcmanus.wordpress.com/about/

Ceardha Morgan comes from Dundalk and lives and writes in Belfast.

Mary Mulrine reads All Changed and Wild Iris. Mary is a singer and musician from the Ormeau Road in Belfast where she lives. She has toured internationally and recorded with Cúigear Ban and The Wild Flowers.

Aisling O’Beirn is a Belfast-based artist. You can read a biography here, and visit her webpage here. She has provided this information about the ‘Constellation of Belfast Nicknames:’

The map was made like a constellation from an ongoing collection of
vernacular place names from Belfast. The aim of the map was to provide a
vernacular word of mouth image of Belfast

I had long been collecting Belfast place nicknames. The collection built
up overseveral years through word of mouth, people got to know about my
nickname collection so started to tell me about nicknames.In 2007 The
collection was greatly augmented by my participation in Space Shuttle’ a
project run by PS2 where artists were given the use of a container space
in a city centre location for a number of weeks. I used the container as a
form of alternative site office to house my collection of Belfast
vernacular information and to meet and talk to people. I got another 60
place nicknames in the space of 10 days in the Space Shuttle.
http://www.pssquared.org/spaceshuttle.php

Jason O’Rourke reads Special Delivery. Jason O’Rourke is a writer and musician based in Belfast, Ireland. Jason’s short stories and poems have been published in various literary journals and collections in Europe and America. He has also published a number of essays and articles about the history of the Medieval Book, and has made several recordings of Traditional Irish Music. Music is available online through Amazon and Itunes or at his MySpace page (currently being updated). Jason is currently the recipient of an Arts Council NI Artist Career Enhancement Scheme award.

Twitter: @jasonoruairc Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/VernacularismsJasonORourke

Micheál Ó Seanáin  hails from Newry, Co. Down, but now lives happily in Ballyvoy outside Ballycastle  in the glens of Antrim with wife Catherine and children Katie and Tóla. He is a musician and music teacher specialising in Irish traditional music on guitar and banjo.  He released his first novel Nut Hollow in 2012, and has a collection of poems ‘Away with Words’ and a second novel ‘Tadhg and the Pockel’ due out early in 2014. He runs a B&B with great rates for writers and musicians!

www.nuthollow.com Twitter: @divilthebit

Neil Shawcross is an acclaimed Belfast-based artist. You can read about him here.