What is it all about?
Eat the Storms, the poetry podcast, will host its annual Poetry Day Ireland episode, featuring 32 poets, each reading a single poem to represent one of the 32 counties on the island of Ireland, our most popular episode each year. This year the theme of Poetry Day Ireland is May Day. Hosted and produced by Damien B. Donnelly, the podcast will go out at 8am on Thursday 1 May, on 12+ platforms including Spotify, Apple, Castbox, Podbean, Amazon Podcasts and YouTube.
How to Apply
The opportunity is open to any poet, who did not represent their country last year, to apply to be a part of our special episode celebrating Poetry Day Ireland 2025. However, if it is difficult to find a county poet, an exception will be made to invite back one of last year’s county guests. You can be from the county or currently living in the county.
I am looking for 32 poets, one poet to represent each of the 32 counties on the island of Ireland. Send an email to eatthestorms@yahoo.com with your name and your county and say if you already have a May Day themed poem or will write one in the coming weeks or if you have a poem relating to your county, perhaps with May or sunshine, summer or even a reference to light tossed in.
If selected, you will be asked to record yourself reading your May Day poem and send it to eatthestorms@yahoo.com
You will also need to send a bio and photo of yourself.
If possible, you will be asked to send a 30 second to 1 minute video of your county, or photographs representing your county, for a promotional video. See last year’s video here
All the above will need to arrive via email before 25 April, 2025.
This year, I am very grateful to Poetry Ireland for their support, from their Bright Ideas Bursary, they are awarding the podcast €480 which means each of the 32 poets will receive a small financial token to thank then for them contribution so you can all toast each other this May Day.
You can listen to last year’s Poetry Day Ireland 2025 episode on most platforms including Spotify
You can also listen to last year’s special episode on YouTube
Host / Producer Damien B Donnelly
Damien B Donnelly is a 49-year-old Irish, adopted, queer writer & podcast producer who spent 23 years in Paris, Amsterdam, and London working in the fashion industry, returning to Dublin at the end of 2019. He’s the host / producer of Eat the Storms and the EIC of The Storms, the printed journal of poetry, prose & visual art. His debut pamphlet, Eat the Storms, published by The Hedgehog Poetry Press, nominated for a Pushcart Prize and featured on the Poetry Book Society Winter List 2020/21, followed by a Pushcart Prize nominated Stickleback (micro collection) and In the Jitterfritz of Neon, a conversational pamphlet co-written with Eilín de Paor. His first full collection Enough! was also published by Hedgehog in August 2022. His poetry and short stories have appeared in numerous journals, online and in print. His 2nd full collection, Back from Away, was published in May 2024 with Turas Press.
The Storms journal is available here
Follow Damien is on X and instagram and Bluesky: @eatthestorms,com
You can purchase his pamphlets and collections at his website
Backing music for Eat the Storms is from Purple Planet Royalty Free Music
You can find us on many platforms including Spotify and here is the link…
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