Lorna Shaughnessy and Nessa O’Mahony: The Cúirt Poetry Sessions, in association with Poetry Ireland/ Éigse Éireann

Lorna is a poet, translator, researcher and editor. Born in Belfast, she now lives in Co Galway where she lectured in Hispanic Studies in The University of Galway until 2024. She has published five poetry collections, Song of the Forgotten Shulamite (Lapwing), Torching the Brown River, Witness Trees, Anchored and Lark Water (Salmon Poetry) and is launching her sixth collection, Throat Full of Feathers, in 2026. She has translated four volumes of Mexican and Spanish poetry and co-edited A Different Eden. Ecopoetry from Ireland and Galicia (Dedalus, 2021). Recent projects include research into multilingualism in Belfast and Galway, and collaborations in theatre and film. She is a co-founding editor of Macha Press.  

Nessa was born in Dublin. She has published six books of poetry – Bar Talk, (1999), Trapping a Ghost (2005), In Sight of Home (2009),  Her Father’s Daughter (2014), The Hollow Woman on the Island (2019) and Dodder Daughter (2026). She has edited journals and anthologies, including the Poetry Ireland Review Issue 138 tribute to Eavan Boland, and writes fiction and non-fiction. She is an associate lecturer with The Open University and has a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of Wales, Bangor.