Ballina writer and musician wins prestigious award

A Ballina writer and musician has won the prestigious Waterford Poetry Prize.

Finola Cahill's creation ‘Skimming Stones on Pollacappul' beat off a large entry from all across the country and highlights Ms Cahill's growing reputation. Her poetry has featured in the London Magazine, Paris Lit Up, An Capall Dorcha, and others. This year she was shortlisted for the Fish Poetry Prize, the Bridport Poetry Prize and the Listowel Writers Week Collection Award. Ms Cahill participated in the 2023 Seamus Heaney Summer School and was one of 37 writers selected for the 2023 Irish Writers Centre national mentoring programme. Her place in the mentoring programme is funded by the Mayo Arts Office. She is currently working towards publishing her first collection, for which she has received an Arts Council Agility Award. Her band, Pembroke, can be found on all the usual streaming services with their debut album, At Sea. 

Cork writer Patrick Holloway was awarded second prize in Waterford for ‘Absences.' Third prize was awarded to ‘After You Told Me You Wanted To F**k, That Night Outside The Abbey Theatre’ by Lianne O’ Hara, a poet and playwright from Dublin.

The adjudicator for the Waterford Poetry Prize, Colm Keegan read the winning poems to a capacity audience at the Speakeasy Open Mic event at the Waterford Writers Weekend. The Arts Office thanked everyone from all over the country who entered and all involved with making the Waterford Writers Weekend a success.