Marty Mulligan: the spoken word artist from Mullingar

When the poet Marty Mulligan takes to the stage to perform his "spoken word art" - be it in Galway, Dublin, or further afield, he makes sure he stresses to his audience that he is "Marty Mulligan - from Mullingar".Proud of his town, and proud of his roots, Marty is as Mullingar as can be, hailing from Auburn Terrace.One of four children, and the son of Martin Mulligan, who owned a promiment shoe shop on Mount Street, and Nancy Gaye, who was heavily involved in Comhaltas, he grew up, he says, in a house "full of music and laughter"."I was blessed because we had a town park to play in, it was our front garden. Our back garden was where Auburn Village is now, we called it 'Ned Flynn's Field' - it wasn't his field but he used to keep cattle on it; so we used to be out playing all day," says Marty."My parents were great people. My mother played the fiddle, and she had a band called The Cheile Greens with my auntie on the spoons, my uncle on the drums, cousin on piano and accordion and my other cousin singing."They wore green berets and green ponchos that they knitted themselves," he recalls."My father came from Castlerea in the late 50's, and worked with Joe Healy for 30 years. "Joe was my godfather."Healy's was a big big business at the time. I remember going into there and all the clothes and the suits and the shoes, and then they had the sweet shop."My dad set up his own business on Mount Street, but his big interest was golf and he was both Captain and President of Mullingar Golf Club in his lifetime, he really loved it.""I had a great childhood, I was very happy growing up."Did you enjoy school?"It was ok up until sixth class when we had a difficult Christian Brother. That was first my first experience of someone being very heavy handed with me. The regime of the Christian Brothers didn't suit me and it didn't suit many others. I've nothing against the school but I'm glad to see the back of them.Music"My mother tried teaching me the fiddle, but I didn't have the patience, then I tried guitar but didn't have the patience for that either. I wanted to play Joe Satriani straight away and if I couldn't do that then I felt there was no point playing it at all," he explains.After school Marty started working for his dad in the shoe shop but soon got itchy feet.He moved to Germany, and then Ibiza in Spain, dj-ing and working with the likes of Smokie and Meatloaf."It was very exciting being away. I got the travel bug and headed off to Spain busking, I was back and forth to Ibiza for four years and I loved it. That was great craic for a 21-year-old lad," he said."Tommy Swarbrigg then gave me a job with Smokie, who invited me to go on tour with them in Scandinavia, selling merchandise and having the craic. We travelled all across Europe and I loved it. I loved working in the music business, I loved the excitement going to different places, the excitement of being around people in a band, musicians. The freedom of it was great," he said.Slam PoetryEleven years ago Marty entered the Baffle poetry competition, almost by accident, and went onto win the thing three years in a row."At the time my piece was described in the Irish Times as high octane humour and I suppose it really was. It was off the wall type of stuff. I memorised what I had written, because to me it was spoken word. It looked weird on a page and for me it only came alive when it was performed," he said."I don't necessarily seek out the biggest, nicest type of words, that's not what I'm about, I'm about trying to get a message across and I hope that's what I do.""I never really considered it as poetry, I call myself a 'spoken word artist' rather than a poet."I slowly became known for it and I set up the first spoken word night in Dublin ten years ago, and the rest is history."Marty was asked to come on board the Electric Picnic Festival team and immediately he incorporated his Spoken Word into the line-up. Now, the Spoken Word tent is one of the biggest draws at the festival each year. He has also expanded the remit, incorporated theatre and music from Mullingar, with people like The Aftermath and Mullingar's Rail Theatre company performing in this year's festival."I always open my shows with "I'm Marty Mulligan from Mullingar" for two reasons, one is that it flows of the tongue quite easily, and the other is that I'm very proud of where I come from. It sticks in people's heads."I lived in a lot of different places over the years. I'm lucky enough to have travelled, but I'm back home and I'm here to stay."Over the years, and especially when you're young, you tend to have a love/hate thing with your home town, but I think we have a town to be proud of."The Discover Mullingar Day showed Mullingar people at their best. People were walking around with big smiles on their faces, there was a great atmosphere."I've always felt there was a solidness about Mullingar people, we are straight talking people with a great sense of humour."What do say to people who think it is a very "clique-y" town?"It was once upon a time. You used to have a designated rugby bar, GAA bar, and soccer bar, so it was very much through sport, and that was very much in the eighties, but I think that has changed now. A lot more people have moved into the town and the dynamic has changed because of it."I think Mullingar is in a very good place now. We've got one of the strongest young bands scene in any town in Ireland. We've one of the finest theatres in the country now and it should be left as so. Sean Lynch is doing a great job, so between music and theatre in this town, we've got it covered."I have to say I was very annoyed to see the coverage on RTÉ news showing Mullingar in a negative light. It was so wrong that I personally will ring Kieran Mullhooley and invite him down to Mullingar, I can think of seven new business that have just opened up, if that's not green shoots, I don't know what is."It wasn't balanced coverage, and I don't know who was responsible for it. I think it should be redressed."• Marty will headline the Spirit of Voice festival in Galway later this month.