Paula Meehan: ‘As a child, anywhere language got interesting, I was mesmerised’

For generations, Paula Meehan has been one of Ireland’s most distinctive poetic voices, a writer whose work moves effortlessly between the personal and the political, the intimate and the mythic.

Ahead of her special spoken-word performance at the 25th-anniversary edition of Other Voices: Home at the Guinness Storehouse on Tuesday, December 16, Meehan invites us into the cultural landscape that continues to inspire her craft and her way of seeing.

What drew you to the realm of poetry initially?

I was born into the realm of poetry. As a child, anywhere language got interesting, I was mesmerised — lullabies, street games, prayers, curses, songs.

Being a poet can seem like a solitary career, but you have worked with musicians, visual artists and dancers in your work. Is collaboration important to you in your poetry?

When the opportunity arises, and I’m into what the person or group, is doing.

Is there a certain theme or idea that you find yourself being drawn to again and again in your work?

Survival. The magic of the everyday, the ordinariness of magic.

Who is someone you look up to in Irish poetry?

My generation of poets. Collectively. Powerful links in an ancient chain.

What has been the highlight of your career so far?

Being a clue in a crossword and a bet in a Dublin bookie’s that I’ll come up in the Leaving Cert.

What is one thing you wish everyone knew about being a poet?

Every generation has its poets, it must have an evolutionary purpose or it would have died out like our tails.

What can we expect from your spoken word performance at Other Voices in the Guinness Storehouse?

The poem HOME.

As a former Ireland Professor of Poetry, how would you suggest someone who hasn’t previously connected with poetry find their footing in the area?

Connect to www.poetryireland.ie, the all-Ireland centre for poetry.

What would you say to a budding poet unsure of their next steps?

Trust your instinct, stick at it. Learn your trade. Be patient with yourself.

Paula Meehan’s life in culture

The book I keep coming back to… Gary Snyder’s Collected Poems.

I find inspiration in… This beautiful earth and all its creatures.

My favourite film is… The Korean film Poetry.

The song I listen to get in the zone is… Anything by Dylan.

The last piece of work I recommended is… Muireann Bradley, the amazing Donegal blueswoman.

I never leave the house without… My keys.

The piece of work I still think about is… WB Yeats’s The Cat and The Moon, as performed by the Children’s Tea Company, Dollymount Strand, sometime in the mid ‘70s.

The best advice I’ve ever gotten… From Seamus Heaney: “Poetry is not showbusiness”, from Eavan Boland: “Bring what troubles the poem into the poem”, and from Allen Ginsberg: “Remember Paula, it’s never too late to do nothing at all.”

The art that means the most to me is… Everything Theo Dorgan writes.

The most challenging thing about being a poet is… Finding the next poem, and the quiet in which to make it.

If I wasn’t a poet, I would be… A forester.

The magic of poetry to me is… Poetry, by its power in the breath, changes the mind, and the mind altering alters all.

Paula Meehan will deliver a special spoken-word performance, weaving in stories that echo the theme of ‘Home’, at the special 25th-anniversary edition of Other Voices: Home at the Guinness Storehouse 2025 on Tuesday, December 16.