Alannah Hopkin gives a musical salute to Cork in On the Banks

Alannah Hopkin discusses the inspiration behind her new book of poems and songs about Cork City, On the Banks.

When I was asked to put together an anthology of poems and songs about Cork City, the first thing I did was to look at The Cork Anthology, edited in 1993 by the late Seán Dunne, poet and Cork Examiner journalist.

Seán’s anthology contains only 15 poems and songs; most of it is prose. And it ranges widely around the county, while my brief was to include only poems and songs about the city. While I feared that would be a limitation, in fact the narrower focus gives the collection a strong identity.