Eamon Carr's Debut Poetry Collection to be launched by Pat McCabe on 8th October

dublin | arts and media | event notice Sunday September 28, 2008 14:34 by Sarah Lundberg - Seven Towers Ltd sarah at seventowers dot ie

Journalist, Rocker, now poet Eamon Carr scores with Origami Crow

As a sports columnist for a Dublin daily, journalist Eamon Carr watched the unfolding drama of the 2002 World Cup finals firsthand in Japan. Yet against the intense public spectacle of media attention following the controversial departure of Ireland captain Roy Keane, Carr followed his own private journey - a lifelong quest to visit the shrines and places of the famed poet Matsuo Basho, recognized master of haiku.

As a sports columnist for a Dublin daily, journalist Eamon Carr watched the unfolding drama of the 2002 World Cup finals firsthand in Japan. Yet against the intense public spectacle of media attention following the controversial departure of Ireland captain Roy Keane, Carr followed his own private journey - a lifelong quest to visit the shrines and places of the famed poet Matsuo Basho, recognized master of haiku.

In a volume of spare, elegant prose and his own haiku chronicling impressions and revelations of that journey, Carr explores the deep interrelationships found within the seeming contrasts of ancient and modern, nation and individual, crowd and solitude, loss and victory. Histories, memories and legends, as well as the wry personal observations of the weary working traveller, merge to create this profoundly moving narrative on the universal nature of grace and redemption.

The Origami Crow: Journey into Japan, World Cup Summer 2002 is Eamon Carr's first collection of poetry and the profundity and depth of the work is a just reward for the long wait. The book is a collection of prose poems and Haiku following Eamon's life experience, his journey into Japan that fateful Summer to follow the footsteps of Basho and is set against the backdrop of the Irish World Cup experience in Japan in Summer 2002. This is an exciting book because of the beauty of the work itself, and its significance as another important milestone in the work of a great artist and a man who truly has the soul of a poet.

Eamon Carr has been a significant figure in the Irish artistic and cultural scene for many years. In the late 1960s he co-founded Tara Telephone, the music and poetry group of the Dublin beat scene. Tara Telephone published everyone from Marc Bolan to Allan Ginsberg, Brian Patten, Seamus Heaney, Pearse Hutchinson, Eilean Ni Chuilleanain, Brendan Kennelly, Adrian Mitchell, Pete Brown in their magazines and broadsheets. The group also ran recitals. Among those who read with Tara Telephone, in addition to Eamon and Peter Fallon were Phil Lynott and Roger McGough. With Jim Fitzpatrick, the group also produced specially designed posters with artwork and poems combined. One of these posters with Eamon's poem 'A Tale of Love' was exhibited in the Tate Gallery, Liverpool, Summer of Love: Art of the Psychedelic Era Exhibition in 2005 which also toured in Germany and Austria.

Following on from Tara Telephone, in the 1970's Eamon co-founded Horslips, the hugely influential band which is credited with creating the musical genre known as Celtic Rock, and in which he is also a drummer, conceptualist and lyricist. Eamon has also promoted musicians and artists, and works as a journalist, writer and commentator on culture, politics, arts, music and sport as well as an award winning broadcaster. He was born in Co. Meath and lives in Dublin.
Novelist Patrick McCabe is from Clones, County Monaghan, Ireland. He is known for his mostly dark and violent novels set in contemporary, often small-town, Ireland. His books include The Butcher Boy (1992) and Breakfast on Pluto (1998), both shortlisted for the Booker PrizeThe Butcher Boy and Breakfast on Pluto have both been adapted into films by Irish director Neil Jordan. He is also the author of a children's book, The Adventures of Shay mOuse (1985), and a collection of linked short stories, Mondo Desperado, published in 1999. The play Frank Pig Says Hello, which he adapted from The Butcher Boy, was first performed at the Dublin Theatre Festival in 1992. McCabe lives in Sligo in Ireland with his wife, Margo and two daughters, Katie and Ellen. His recent novel, Emerald Germs of Ireland (2001), is a black comedy featuring matricide Pat McNab and his attempts to fend off nosy neighbours. His latest novel, Winterwood, was published in 2006, and was named the 2007 Hughes & Hughes/Irish Independent Irish Novel of the Year.