Kieran Beville

Exploring Our Outdoor Gallery The statues and murals of our Limerick city By Kieran Beville Rising from the banks of the River Shannon, Limerick is a place where stone and story entwine. From medieval battlements to bronze tributes, its monuments and statues whisper tales of resistance, resilience, and renaissance. To stroll through Limerick is to walk beside history in full view — carved in limestone, cast in bronze, and etched into the public imagination. The Dockers – A Tribute to the Working Class Along Howley’s Quay stands The Dockers , a bronze sculpture by Michael Duhan (brother of the artist/writer Eric Duhan and the Late Johnny Duhan) that honours the generations of men who laboured on Limerick’s bustling waterfront. Stoic and muscular, the figures strain under the weight of a large plank, possibly a railway sleeper. This is a striking homage to the backbone of the city’s economy throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The evocative piece reminds passers-by that Lime...

                     A Critical Study of the Poetry of W.B. Yeats By Kieran Beville Few poets have so thoroughly shaped both the literary and imaginative landscape of Ireland as William Butler Yeats. Across five decades of creative development, Yeats transformed from a romantic dreamer of Celtic myth to a modernist master of disciplined form and philosophical depth. His career embodies the tension between national identity and personal vision, between the mystical and the material, and between language as inheritance and as self-creation. This essay examines Yeats’s achievement as a poet of transition — a writer who forged a distinctly Irish modernism in English, infusing the language with rhythms and imagery drawn from Ireland’s landscape, history, and consciousness. Yeats and the Creation of an Irish English Yeats’s relationship with language is central to his work. Though he wrote in English, he sought a diction that coul...

  Are the Gatekeepers Killing Poetic Creativity? By Kieran Beville Let’s be real: if you haven’t snagged one of the big-name poetry prizes, you’re basically invisible. The poetry world, like the music industry, runs on hype, clout, and those shiny accolades that separate the “serious” artists from the rest of the crowd. Pulitzer, National Book Award, Forward Prize—these are the Grammy Awards of poetry. Without that kind of street cred, you might as well be playing your verses in a vacuum. The Price of Entry? A Steep Fee But here’s the kicker: entering these contests isn’t free. Far from it – like buying a ticket to a music festival, there’s a cost to even get your foot in the door. It’s a classic pay-to-play scheme, and it’s messing with the diversity of voices we hear. If you’re not flush with cash, your chances of getting heard—or winning—take a serious hit. It’s like the poetry world is putting up velvet ropes around the stage, letting in only those who can afford the co...

  The Merits and Demerits of Contemporary Poetry A Critical Exploration By Kieran Beville In the rapidly evolving landscape of literature, contemporary poetry stands as a vibrant, often polarising force. From Instagram verses to experimental forms, contemporary poets have pushed boundaries, challenged norms, and democratised expression in profound ways. Yet, with innovation comes critique—questions about quality, depth, and cultural value persist. This article explores the merits and demerits of contemporary poetry, offering a nuanced assessment of its role in modern society. Understanding Contemporary Poetry Contemporary poetry refers broadly to works produced from the mid-20th century to the present. Unlike classical or even modernist poetry, which was often confined to formal structures and elite readerships, contemporary poetry embraces a wide variety of voices, forms, and themes. It is influenced by globalisation, digital media, multiculturalism, and socio-political ...

  What Is Poetry?  An Exploration of Form, Function, and Meaning by Kieran Beville Poetry is one of the most enduring forms of literary expression, characterised by its distinctive use of language, rhythm, and symbolic resonance. This paper examines the formal qualities of poetry, its historical evolution, and its cultural significance, drawing on critical theory and literary scholarship to present a nuanced understanding of the poetic form. Poetry, as a mode of discourse, occupies a unique place in the literary canon. It is both ancient and continually evolving, combining aesthetic structure with profound thematic depth. As Northrop Frye (1957) suggests, poetry forms one of the essential literary modes that organise human experience through imaginative frameworks. Unlike prose, which typically privileges narrative continuity and expository clarity, poetry often operates through ambiguity, compression, and heightened language, aiming to evoke rather than explain. This br...