BY DECLAN TIERNEY

Music and poetry sessions that he attended in Tuam Library more than a decade ago have inspired a local man to finally publish a collection of poems that capture the essence of the town and it characters.

Former community warden Christy Corcoran has launched his debut collection, explaining that the poems it contains were inspired by the monthly Soundbites sessions that there held in Tuam Library.

While attending these gatherings, he saw and heard people being given an open floor to entertain those present with music, songs, stories and poetry, and that proved inspirational.

At the well-attended launch of Christy’s Best of a Bad Lot, his brother, the well-known performer and artist Midie Corcoran, summed it up by saying that Christy’s poems reflected his ramblings and observations from the town and its surrounding countryside over the years.

Midie praised the Soundbites initiative that was held in Tuam many years ago and which had nurtured aspiring poets, songwriters and musicians to try out new work.

And he paid tribute to singer-songwriter and friend and former member of The Saw Doctors, Padraig Stevens (describing him as ‘the Godfather of Tuam music’) for encouraging the likes of Christy and countless others to pick up a pen or a guitar for the first time.

“Christy is a proud Tuam sham, through and through, but is not the first poet in our family,” said Midie. “Our granduncle John Henry Corcoran was also a poet so it’s fitting that the cover of the book features a picture of his pub and undertakers from over a century ago.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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