This website is currently undergoing renovation. Please bear with us as we implement these changes.

Bluesy Ballymoe by William Tiernan: Pulse and Hearts above Zero

Post date: Dec 05, 2017 12:3:31 PM

Bluesy Ballymoe by William Tiernan

– Pulse and Hearts above Zero –

posted 5 Dec 2017, 12:03

Poetry that fears not to go wherever the heart leads it is what the reader can expect in the forthcoming, second volume by William Tiernan, soon to be released.

Bluesy Ballymoe: Pulse and Hearts above Zero has just been published and will be on general sale from Saturday, 9 December, when the book will be formally launched at a special reception in the Galway village from which the book takes its title.

William Tiernan is a poet and author who resides in rural Galway, close to the Roscommon border. His writings reflect his personal experiences and convictions, as well as strong ties to the community in which he lives and his identification with the place where he grew up. His first collection of poems, Greetings from Guilka, Ballymoe: Poems from the Head and the Heart (also available to buy online) was published in 2016. Previously, he was National Winner in the poetry category at the Hanna Greally International Literary Awards in 2014, organised as part of the annual SiarScéal Festival in Co. Roscommon.

As a poet, he says, he is always a loner but, in his heart and soul, he strives to be a real people's person and not a fair-weather friend, not least to those who suffer the torments of this world.

"No matter how strong faith is, fear and doubt will test it to its core, weaken it if they can and, in some cases, sadly, destroy."

He goes on to say that "love can be a cold stone nesting in a warm fire with its flame reaching out to heal, but cannot reach a dying wound."

Tiernan's poetry burns with insight; a true example of the fire inside the head that drives a person to create. Influences ranging from Bob Dylan to Patrick Kavanagh will be discerned but the voice is all his own. It is a distinct voice that reaches out to people, addresses itself to themes that are universal, reflections that are often sadly true but, able and willing to rise to the challenges that they present.

"Never let the sun go down on your hatred or your anger; it will eat you away. Depression is an illness of the mind and body, a cancer of the soul. Let's support one another and defeat it."

Bluesy Ballymoe: Pulse and Heart above Zero by William Tiernan is published by The Manuscript Publisher and is available to buy online (RRP €12.95 plus P&P). It will also be on sale at the book's launch, to take place on Saturday, 9 December at Fr Flanagan Community Centre, Ballymoe, Co. Galway, following 8pm Mass.