Lovely evening in Longford’s Athena Fine Art Gallery for Darragh Coady’s first hometown show

A Longford town poet described his first hometown show as a great success. Darragh Coady recently performed at the Athena Art Gallery on Ballymahon Street.

“The gig went very well. We had a nice little turn out, roughly 30 people in attendance which made the atmosphere very intimate,” the poet said of the event.

“I had a chance to try out some pieces with musical backing on an unsuspecting audience which also went down a treat,” he told the Leader, “It was nice to engage with such a diverse bunch: those who love poetry, others who don’t even like it but were curious about the event and others who came out on the day to support what I do.”

Darragh said the evening was an opportunity to promote spoken word poetry and connect with others who may not find poetry accessible: “There were comments like ‘I didn’t think poetry was like that, I wanted to hear more’ and ‘it was inspiring’. On those compliments alone I definitely achieved my goal.”

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The poet has been writing since his mid teens, but the performance aspect of his art is more recent. He draws on life experience for his subject matter: “Many of my poems provide a social commentary on contemporary society, some of which are often told from an underdog’s perspective.

“The themes explored within my work range from love to memory, politics, morality, injustice and the occasional taboo topic,” he says.

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The Longford town native has honed his performance side of his craft at the Maria Edgeworth literary festival, culture night, World Poetry Day, the Circle Sessions in Dublin and last October performed his first show at Culture Rapide in Paris.

Darragh Coady has more shows lined up: “Next month I’m attending my first poetry slam in Dublin. I’m looking forward to it and checking out the talent there. I’ll also be at the Maria Edgeworth literary festival. For Poetry Day Ireland, I will be back at Athena with the Longford Writer’s Group on Thursday, April 25 where I hope to see coffee and poetry enthusiasts unite once again.”