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I should add that I very much appreciated how she took time to talk with everyone in attendance, staff included, which was largely a mix of Coatbridge locals, and Edinburgh business people, journalists, PR and media workers, government support staff, and artists.

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Nor did I expect the bulk of my conversation to focus on Dunbar's early 16th Century proto-feminist comic masterpiece, the Twa Merritt Wemen and the Wedo ;) Truly an honour and privilege.

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I did not expect, and very much enjoyed, learning of a long poem, from 1780, Brian Merriman's the Midnight Court, which is right up my alley (and on the way now in the post).

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Had the pleasure, too, to present her with a copy of my last book, Lilies on the Deathbed of Étaín, through @downingfield.bsky.social, and to briefly discuss my forthcoming, the Kergyma, through @salmonpoetry.bsky.social, with which she is well acquainted.

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I had the honour of being one the Edinburgh-based artists asked to attend, and it was a hoot. Catherine was kind, sharp, witty, and has a keen ear for poetry.

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Had the immense pleasure to meet the President of Ireland, Catherine Connolly last week at an event honouring the toil of Gaels who fled genocide and famine between 1845 and 1852, but desperately sought to send money home, at all costs, to keep their families alive. @president.ie

Oisín Breen @oisinbreen.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Like it? Buy a book, a Scotsman poetry book of the year, Lilies on the Deathbed of Étain: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/... A new epic, the Kerygma is also out soon, through Salmon Poetry. @downingfield

amazon.co.uk

Amazon

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Oisín Breen @oisinbreen.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

The @IrishTimes poem of the week! Absolutely delighted. Give the full thing a read. An Uncrowned King "Painted women sang, and squalor prove a harsh backdrop for sheriffs – judges and barristers too – careening through..." www.irishtimes.com/c... #poetry #art

irishtimes.com

Poem of the Week: An Uncrowned King

A new work by Oisín Breen

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Oisín Breen @oisinbreen.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Yahoo. Also, fun right? Like... We all have plenty of suits at this point, but poor wedding... New pretty thing excuse! Queue Tom arriving with three.

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Oisín Breen @oisinbreen.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Wedding suit: Sorted Next up (at the weekend): Wedding shoes.

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Oisín Breen @oisinbreen.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

99.99% of 'confessional' poetry reads like a document concocted by a HR department titled, 'discussing our responsibility to empathy.' I think that's a big part of the reason I can't stand it, it's all so utterly beigecore corporate, but its pretense is revolution.

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Oisín Breen @oisinbreen.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Picking crabapples at home to make jam.

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Oisín Breen @oisinbreen.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

It was when "bluebells and daffodils, orchids and gorse, foxgloves and snowdrops all competed to see who would grow the tallest." Peigín de Dán, new work in a special edition of Candyman's Trumpet for Ireland. #writing #art #literature #poetry

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Oisín Breen @oisinbreen.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

It "blooms so modestly above tongueish leaves, its small yellow-white flowers reaching for the sun, before they turn to a base of red." The Afterlife, new work just published in the ever amazing Exacting Clam www.exactingclam.com #writing #poetry #art #literature

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Oisín Breen @oisinbreen.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Annnd relax. Edinburgh - Dublin 7 days - Holyhead - Chester one day - Holt/Farndon 2 days - Crewe (Railway museum, awesome signal box exhibition) - Edinburgh - Home.

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Oisín Breen @oisinbreen.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

P.S. there is little more irritating than people randomly talking to you, pretending interest, only to try and flog you their services. I make art, I'm pretty good at it. Random person I don't know or trust providing dodgy editorial services? Thanks for wasting my time.

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Oisín Breen @oisinbreen.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

absolutely and categorically no.

Oisín Breen @oisinbreen.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Multi temporal, narrative history, through a shifting third person lens moving from scene to scene through intimate moments of Irish history.

the piece I just shared is a heavily modified tiny section of the second 'chapter' of the fifth book :) I often take little snippets from my works-in-progress, then deconstruct them to build little works to share.

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Working on what will therefore be book five! So, book three, sold, delayed, but will come soonish; book four, sold, due 28; book five, beavering away on it, and it's a liiitlle inspired by how I remember the movie Russian Ark's (I watched it 20 years ago) chronological higgledepiggeldy.

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Ohhh! Sorry :) I didn't quite get ye. Thank you for asking :) Short answer: yes. Long answer, I already have a third book with Salmon Poetry, but there's been delays in publication, but soon. It's an epic. (late 26/27). I've a collected works of shorter pieces due mid, 28, also finished. and...

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Drafting in this context being?

Oisín Breen @oisinbreen.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

"What is left behind, when the heavy weft of a weeping strips [is] a salt rain, winnowing; the soft soot bark his father left for him." 'Bang, Bang!' One of two new pieces just published in a special edition of Candyman's Trumpet for Ireland. #writing #poetry #art #literature

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Och, thank you. And thank you for reading it. One of my 'still lives,' seeing as it is very particularly about the seed of a yew tree.

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Oisín Breen @oisinbreen.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

"And so it is below ground - cairn of the dead - the dead speak in soil; and life is a foundation kindling to fight for." The Seeds of Fortingall New work in Flooded Pine Press' Anthology, Apothecary for the Future. floodedpinepress.com/ #writing #books #art #literature

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Flooded Pine Press publishes writing toward livable tomorrows.

It's a wee favourite of mine, so do have a read, and check them out, below: floodedpinepress.com/ Flooded Pine Press

floodedpinepress.com

Flooded Pine Press

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"In the pressured heat, all things pause, leaving only the föhn, a downdraft of warmth in the long lee of mountains, where rainshadows kink scree sidelong in the gloaming of tallow on chalk hills." 'The Hills of Saratov,' just out in the anthology, Apothecary for the Future.

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Obviously the best part then is they say I wasn't in, when I was literally staring at them, waving hello.

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