'I love it when my poetry forges a connection to people’s lives'

Róisín Leggett Bohan was nine years old when she began to write stories and poems.

“I remember the view from the bedroom window of my grandmother’s house in Baltimore - the stillness of Tullagh cemetery, the carcass of an old boat jutting out of the water in Church Strand Bay,” she recalls.

“I had this need to observe, to witness every small thing that seemed big to me, so, on school holidays, I would sit at that little desk overlooking the sea and scribble down everything that I saw and all I imagined that was unseen.”

This compulsion to read and write, record and reflect, never left her - and with good reason.

Cork woman Róisín has been named the winner of the 2025 Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award, a highly prestigious national prize recognising emerging poets who have yet to release their first collection.

In this, she follows a long line of esteemed Cork poets, including Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, John Fitzgerald, John Mee, and Róisín’s co-editor of the literary journal HOWL New Irish Writing, Lauren O’Donovan.

The Makings of a Poet

“I remember reading every book on my parents’ bookshelf, beginning at the top shelf and working myself down,” says Róisín of her early life.

There were a lot of spiritual books and popular psychology titles, such as The Road Less Travelled by M. Scott Peck, which I was fascinated with at the time.

“I loved words, their sound, their shape, the space they inhabited on the page. I began to collect them, made my own dictionary with words I didn’t know alongside their meaning.

“I saw words as a balm, and as a way to buoy other words - I had no goal in mind; I just wanted to write them down and liked the structure of doing it.”

It took years before Róisín looked to publish anything.

“I entered the the From The Well competition with a short story in 2016 - it was a historical fiction piece about my father’s life, in particular his experiences as a merchant navy seaman. The brilliant Billy O’Callaghan judged it. I was so honoured when it was published in an anthology alongside 19 other stories.”

Poetry as a social act

Róisín sees poetry as a way to connect.

“I often think of that line from Walt Whitman: ‘For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.’

“Writing is such a solitary act, but once your work is shared or published, it takes on its own life through the experience of others.

“We write for ourselves, but it is a lovely thing when an unsuspecting email lands in my inbox from a reader who has found something of themselves in my poems that connects to their own experience of living.”

Cork is gifted with a kind community of poets and literary organisations, Róisín says, something she treasures.

“We are so lucky in Cork to have a host of supportive literary groups who embolden emerging writers, such as the Munster Literature Centre, Ó’Bhéal go Béal, and people like Patricia Looney of Cork City Library and John Breen of Waterstones, who do so much to amplify the work of writers and curate events where it is shared and celebrated in the community.

“It’s a beautiful thing when we poets gather to read our work at events, the supportive connection is palpable ‘...as if threaded to a single long nerve’, to borrow the words of the poet Tracy K Smith.”

Róisin’s poetic voice was being carried far and wide well before the award was announced.

One of the poems from her winning manuscript, The Cryptographer, was chosen by Poetry Ireland to be showcased nationwide on trains and DARTs and was shared on RTÉ for Poetry Day 2025 in March.

The last line, haunting in its simplicity, reads “imagine if we could forgive ourselves everything”.

Róisín is conscious of the pressures placed on people in modern life.

“As human beings, we are constantly barraged by the pressures of a commercialised society and what it thinks we should be.

“I think it’s important to mind ourselves against over-critical thought and to remember to go easy on ourselves by celebrating our individual quirks and taking joy in small things like a stranger’s unexpected act of kindness or connection: a coin left in a shopping trolley, a chat in a queue, or receiving a free coffee from an unknown person which I myself experienced lately.”

The poem, The Cryptographer, brings back fond memories to Róisín of an artist residency in the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Co. Monaghan.

“The poem’s main character is a cat named Ariel, who was the resident cat at that time. She would follow me down to the lake on my night walks.

“It felt like she was a seer, as if her nocturnal vision stood in for something beyond sight.

“I grew up in the countryside and adored animals. Apparently, I went missing when I was five to ‘help’ milk my neighbour’s cows, not that I remember it.”

The Patrick Kavanagh Award

Róisín was deeply honoured to receive the award, named in honour of the late, great Monaghan poet.

“‘It’s as sensational as April,’ to quote Patrick Kavanagh himself!” she says.

“I remember preparing my collection of 20 poems. I placed the pages on the floor, stood on a chair, and imagined where each poem would land and what the shape of my collection could look like.

“I read each one multiple times, looking for typos and misplaced punctuation marks.

“I believe the observation of every small thing, every small thought, can hold great treasure.”

A selection of Róisín Leggett Bohan’s poetry is available to read in Beginnings Over And Over: Four New Poets from Ireland, published by Dedalus Press (2025).