The fourth annual Circling the Square event in honour of writer Dennis O’Driscoll takes place from 31 October – 2 November 2025 in The Source Arts Centre, Thurles, Tipperary.
Events include
7.45 pm
Friday 31 October
Poets, Speakers, & Musicians I
Introduction by Jimmy Duggan. Poetry by Polina Cosgrave, Sean Lysaght, Moya Cannon, Joseph Bathanti and Mary O’Donnell and music by Brendan Collins, Gina Oberoi, Tim V Smyth/Carol Ann McGowan – Hidden Highways, Pat O’Callaghan, Ed Dwan Quartet and Leslie Dowdall & Hugh Buckley.
7.45 pm,
Friday 31 October
Poets, Speakers, & Musicians II
Declan O’Driscoll reads from Circling the Square. Poetry by Eleanor Hooker, Mark Roper, Jane Clarke, Bernard O’Donoghue and Grace Wilentz. Music by Emma Roche, Tim V Smyth/Carol Ann McGowan – Hidden Highways, Leslie Dowdall & Hugh Buckley and Ed Dwan Quartet
Dennis O’Driscoll (1954–2012), born in Thurles, was a distinguished Irish poet, essayist, and critic. The Gallery Press published two collections of his essays, Troubled Thoughts, Majestic Dreams (2001) and The Outnumbered Poet (2013). His eight poetry collections include New and Selected Poems (2004), Reality Check (2007), and Dear Life (2013), winner of the Irish Times Poetry Now Award. He edited major anthologies, including The Bloodaxe Book of Poetry Quotations, and authored Stepping Stones: Interviews with Seamus Heaney (2008), shortlisted for Book of the Decade. A member of Aosdána, he received numerous literary honors and contributed widely as a reviewer and poetry judge.
