This brought together the poet and the troubadour, Peter Fallon and Declan O’Rourke. They are quite different in age and in their chosen professions, but they have a similar perspective on life and views on nature and the world around them. It was interesting to see the many similarities between them, despite the generational differences. Peter and Declan first met at a performance in Tara organised by another poet, Paul Muldoon. The two are now friends and shared an easy rapport on stage together.

Peter Fallon is a poet and the founder of Gallery Press. He started Gallery Press at the tender age of 18, in a time before business plans and venture capitalists. Gallery press has since gone on to publish over 400 books, and they are some of the most beautifully produced books made in Ireland today.  He has published a number of volumes of poetry and his latest work ‘Strong, My love’ was launched last week.

Declan O’Rourke is a singer song writer who has now released three albums, the first of which ‘Since Kyabram’ was released in 2004. He has since gone on to perform at many festivals and solo shows. His lyrics show an intense love of nature. As he said himself, he is a spiritual man rather than religious, and for him nature and God are the same thing!

The performance took the shape of a number of songs by Declan broken up by a series of poems read by Peter. Declan sang about a cave near Mitchelstown where he performed recently, a song for the children that died in the 1916 rising and another song based on the famine in Ireland. He has been working on songs for the famine for a number of years now, and has quite a collection of them. Peter read a number of poems, with more than one based on birds and their graceful movements in the sky.  There were some humorous exchanges between the two, and they seemed very comfortable sharing a stage together.

The Dublin Writers Festival continues until May 25th.