Beneath a starry night
like the Dutchman would paint
we met as star-crossed lovers
This with a kiss I die Continue reading “The Great Isle”
Author: Kenneth Hickey
Fallen Giants
A thousand men once worked this yard
Beneath bright cranes with bible names
A golden rivet driven home
For each to build a happy house
That was the days of yore
Written of in history books. Continue reading “Fallen Giants”
What Water Reveals
Last summer as I considered what to write for Loughshore Lines, I was reading Katherine Howe’s The House of Velvet and Glass. The novel explores a woman’s obsession with scrying, using a reflective object or surface such as a crystal ball or the surface of water to attempt to see the past or foretell the future. Continue reading “What Water Reveals”
River Song
My voice may lull and soothe your troubled mind
With sweet concentric notes of layered song
And if the ropes of living tightly bind
I’ll loose those knots and carry you along Continue reading “River Song”
The Edge of Strangeness
What makes a place familiar? What causes that feeling that you have left your home ground? I can feel the change near the Ulster border more than on the political one, yet parts of Leitrim seem like home to me, and parts of Cavan do not. Rivers and loughs do not divide but rather unite – and therein lies a clue. The Erne basin holds me in the hollow of its hand. Wherever rain may fall is home to me, so long as that rain will eventually end up at Assaroe. Elsewhere it runs to stranger seas – to the Liffey or Limerick or Londonderry. That strangeness begins a bare seven miles to the North, on the Omagh road, somewhere between The Harp and Togherdoo, and if I travel up the Erne and round the corner of Cuilcagh, it is waiting for me somewhere on the road to Ballinamore. Continue reading “The Edge of Strangeness”
Loughshore Lines
Loughshore Lines was the brainchild of Ken Ramsey, who proposed that Fermanagh writers should invite creative responses to The Erne and the surrounding landscape, to include public performances in Ballyshannon, Cavan and Enniskillen. Some of the writers are well known, but some are published here for the first time. Continue reading “Loughshore Lines”
The Loss of Yellowhammers
In the lambent light of a shebeen, in the company of men of a certain vintage nursing tumblers of amber-coloured liquid as the fire in the hearth crackles with mischievous laughter, tales are told of soft-remembered times. It is here you will find this astonishing debut collection of John D Kelly’s The Loss of Yellowhammers.
Smiles to Go Before I Weep
The sun always rises after a storm writes Rodney Edwards of the Impartial Reporter on the back cover of this anthology. Nobody knows this better than Mary McElroy. This brilliant book is a testament to that.
Yet, as the title suggests, the truth that Mary knows is more complex. Wishing for the sun will not make the storm go away sooner, and the thunder may come again long after the sky has cleared. Continue reading “Smiles to Go Before I Weep”
Submissions for March Issue
Dinnseanachas or placelore was one of the earliest forms of Irish vernacular writing. Every hill, river and road had its story. They still do. Corncrake is looking for such stories – the stories that make a particular place, which would otherwise seem ordinary and insignificant – special. Whole books can and have been written about a particular village or townland, but think of the places that are special to you that are even more specific than that: this crossroads, this
Though the magazine covers Fermanagh and the adjoining area, the corncrake is a migratory bird. so we will accept submissions about other places. However, it must be a real, physical place that can be found on a map. Tell us exactly where it is, add an image if appropriate, and then write about it in 800 words or less. It may be prose or poem – myth, legend, memoir, fiction, or simply a descriptive evocation of your unique place.
Submissions to editor@corncrakemagazine.
Deadline 28 February
Here at Last!
Following our launch at the Allingham Festival, Loughshore Lines is now available for sale at A Novel Idea bookstore in Ballyshannon (€5) or the County Museum Enniskillen (£5).
To order direct by post, please email fermanaghwriters@aol.co.uk
or come to our upcoming events at Belturbet Old Railway Station on Saturday 4th December at 2.30 or Blakes of the Hollow, Enniskillen on Tuesday 7th December at 7.30.
Contributors to the collection include Colin Dardis, Kate Ennals, Monica Corish, Tom Sigafoos, John McIntyre, Pat Joe Kennedy, Moyra Donaldson, Trish Bennett, Teresa Kane, and Jenny Brien.