Mullingar poet in Limericks final (in Limerick)

A poem by a Mullingar writer has made it to the final of the Limericks Literary Festival in the town of the same name this weekend.

Conor Duggan will perform his five lines in the Limerick venue Dolan’s this Saturday August 25.
Just back in Ireland after spending time in Australia working as an exploration geologist in the mining industry, Conor says that he was surprised that he made it through to the final as it was his first attempt at writing poetry since primary school.

“When I came back to Ireland, I wanted go get back into it [writing] and I made of list of writing competitions this year. This was the first one I entered and I put a good bit of work into it.”

Conor’s Limerick:

“There once was a thief from Quebec
Who stole a reality cheque.
His dupe he did thank,
And went to the bank,
But comeuppance was all he did get.”

Conor, whose ambition is to write a book, prepared for Limerick by reading his poem at a seisiun in a bar in Easkey, County Sligo last weekend, where, he says, it went down well with the audience.
He will be supported in Limerick by his parents Margaret and Patrick and sister Deirdre.

While it may be only five lines long, writing a Limerick is anything but easy thanks to the strict number of rules involved. In a Limerick poem, lines one, two and five must rhyme, as must lines three and four.