Longford native launches fourth collection of poems in Waterford
Ardagh native Joe Conway, now Mayor of Waterford City and County, opened proceedings at the final event of Waterford Writers’ Weekend: the launch of native Longford-townie Edward Denniston’s fourth collection of poems, VITAL.
Both Joe and Edward moved to Waterford in the early 1980s but only recently encountered each other.
The book launch took place on Sunday, October 29, amongst a wonderful selection of paintings from the Municipal collection in the Waterford Gallery of Art.
Joe spoke to the gathered about going into town from Ardagh village to Denniston’s eclectic shop in Centenary Square in the summer of 1972 to pick up his order of David Bowie’s, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.
And after words of praise and encouragement for those who ran and participated in the weekend, Joe handed over to poet and nature writer, Mark Roper, who officially launched the book and spoke about the themes and preoccupations in Edward’s work.
A small Longford and Midlands contingent were present – Denise Champ/ Denniston from Denniston’s shop, along with her husband Andrew, and from Mullingar, the poet John Ennis. Edward introduced and read some from the collection, two of which were obviously inspired by memories of ‘the shop’ and shop-keeping.
A copy of the collection VITAL can be purchased at Denniston’s shop Longford.