Journalist wins satire award

Hazelbury resident and Community Voice journalist Peter Goulding has won the political satire award at the Strokestown International Poetry Festival, the largest dedicated poetry festival in Ireland.

The award is presented annually to “light, witty satirical verse on the subject of Irish politics, or other burning topical and/or social issues of the day” and Peter won for his entry “The Poverty Trap,” a satirical swipe at the claimed impoverishment of our recently departed Taoiseach during the early 1990s.

The competition is run in conjunction with a serious poetry award and a Gaelic poetry competition and draws entries from around the world. Entries must be submitted by the end of January and the ten nominees in each category are invited to read their work in Strokestown over the May bank holiday weekend.

Appropriately for a political satire competition, Peter won “a brown paper envelope stuffed with money,” as well as a much-coveted ash plant hewn from the hills around Strokestown.

“I have been writing light, humorous verse for many years now,” said Peter, “but it is only recently that I have started entering the odd competition here and there. I was nominated two years ago in Strokestown and have also been shortlisted for the Swift Satire Competition – two entries in the shortlist of six – the In sight of Raftery poetry competition in Kiltimagh, the Flat Lake Poetry competition and the Bard of Armagh.

“However, this was the first time I had actually won and when they called out my name I was stunned! It feels very special to have won what is in effect the largest humorous poetry competition on these islands, though I fully recognise that luck plays a huge part in these things.

“As in all artistic competitions, one judge might love your work on a particular day, while another judge might hate it on another. This time I was lucky!”

Peter is a member of the Dublin 15 Writer’s Group which meets on the first and third Wednesday of the month in Myo’s pub at 8pm and he contributed two light poems to their last anthology “Phoenix Ink.” He has also been published in “Revival” and “The Doghouse Book of Ballads” and he was formerly resident poet on RTE radio’s “The Creedon Show” when it had a daytime slot. He writes a regular musings column for Community Voice and is also a contributor to the Shelbourne FC match day programme.

 

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