24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Ireland represented for first time at Luxembourg Poetry Festival by Wicklow poet
Born in 1961, Jane grew up on a farm in the west of Ireland before relocating to her current home in Glenmalure over 30 years ago.
Ambassador Jean McDonald, Embassy of Ireland in Luxembourg, invited Jane to take part in the festival alongside poets from ten other European countries, including Italy, Spain, Austria, Slovakia, France, Portugal, Czech Republic, Switzerland and Luxembourg.
The festival takes place from Friday, April 25, to Sunday, April 27, and will finish with final readings from all eleven selected poets and a closing discussion bringing together the participating poets. Poetry readings will also take place with musical accompaniment by Luxembourg musician Pol Belardi and American-Luxembourgish guitarist Greg Lamy.
Speaking on Thursday, before departing for the festival taking place over the weekend, Jane said: 'I am very honoured to have been selected by Embassy of Ireland in Luxembourg and Poetry Ireland to participate in the festival and to be the first Irish poet involved. It will be really great to get the opportunity to carry out readings alongside other poets from throughout Europe. Making international connections is hugely important, especially in this day and age.
'I am looking forward to meeting all the different poets and getting a sense of what is going on in each different country. My poem Legend, inspired by St Bridget, features on the festival website and was also read out on a local radio station in Luxembourg. The fact the poem is about St Bridget is a good way of representing Ireland.'
Jane holds a BA in English and philosophy from Trinity College, Dublin and an MPhil in writing from the University of South Wales, and has a background in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. She was the 2022 recipient of the Ireland Chair of Poetry Award and she received an Arts Council of Ireland Literature Bursary Award in 2024.
She is the author of three poetry collections, The River (2015), When the Tree Falls (2019) and A Change in the Air (2023) published by Bloodaxe Books. She also edited the illustrated anthology Windfall: Irish Nature Poems to Inspire and Connect.
Jane's fourth collection will be published by Bloodaxe Books in October 2026. She is currently editing an illustrated anthology of poetry and prose for publication by New Island Books in September 2025.
