Our Killer City – a fine mix of anger and wit
Arts Week with Judy Murphy
In another life, Galway poet and writer Rita Ann Higgins might have been a revolutionary. But just a weekend one, she observes with a laugh, because she’d never “have enough courage” to endure the imprisonment, torture or even death that being a fulltime revolutionary might entail.
Revolutionaries are to the front of Rita Ann’s mind right now because she’s just taken part in an arts festival in Kinvara, supporting people who are seeking human rights in the Central American state of Nicaragua.
That festival followed hot on the launch of her latest book, Our Killer City: isms, chisms, chasms and schisms, published by Salmon Poetry. A collection of essays and poems, it resulted from a commission by Sunday Independent Deputy Editor, Brendan O’Connor in 2016.
Her column, This Woman’s Life, ran fortnightly in the paper and offered Rita Ann an opportunity to share her thoughts on everything from cleaning the fridge to losing coats. Of course, social issues featured prominently – from the carry-on at Galway 2020 to shortcomings at University Hospital Galway and much more. There are laugh-out-loud moments as she discusses her approach to domestic chores or her poor sense of direction. And then there are moments that shock. They include an account of her son-in-law Pat Mackey’s experience at UHG while he was waiting admission to the hospital’s cancer-care Centre of Excellence.
No One Mentioned the Roofer is a heart-breaking piece about Pat, whose cancer was terminal and who died shortly after, in August 2017. It’s followed by a poem of the same name, which she wrote in 2011, after Pat had lost his job during the economic downturn.
The poem from which the collection takes its title, Our Killer City, first appeared in the Galway City Tribune in 2017, as the controversy over Galway 2020 raged.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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