Darragh Ó Bradáin

Last week, I spotted a post on the Irish Writers Centre website about a competition for their anthology. Winners will have their piece featured. I hadn’t given poetry real consideration up until that point, so I sat on my new chair and thought about what was current for me. I settled on a topic which has dominated my thinking for the last while and put fingers to keyboard. I chose to write in Irish as my academic background is rooted there.

This process encouraged me to write for a second time, then a third, and a fourth. So far, I’ve written all my poems in Irish so I decided to add a new section to the website in order to document my work. I haven’t added the first poem, as that has been submitted for the competition, where anonymity is part of the rules.

Can I call myself a poet now? I can call myself an engineer if I want, but it doesn’t make me one. I’ve written four poems, and I intend to write more, so yeah, I guess that makes me a poet. File in Irish, pronounced FILL-eh. Is file mé, tá súil agam go mbainfidh tú sult as mo chuid saothair.

Check out my work here.