Frank Ormsby Launch Readings
‘When he explores again a lifetime’s themes and preoccupations, Frank Ormsby, like all true poets, mysteriously finds himself breaking new ground. Even more uncannily, several of his recent poems already read like classics. Wise and vulnerable, this poet courageously scans the horizons presented by illness and death. Love poet as well as elegist, he embraces heartbreak and gladness. Its depth of thought and emotion gives The Tumbling Paddy a sense of resurrection.’ – Michael Longley
Frank Ormsby's eighth collection The Tumbling Paddy was published by Bloodaxe Books in June 2026. This is his third title from Bloodaxe Books, and his first book since he served as the eighth Ireland Professor of Poetry from 2019 to 2022.
Frank Ormsby was born in 1947, in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, and was educated at Queen's University in Belfast. Until 2010 he was Head of English at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. His latest collections are The Tumbling Paddy (Bloodaxe Books, June 2026), The Rain Barrel (Bloodaxe Books, 2019) and The Darkness of Snow (Bloodaxe Books, 2017), a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, which was shortlisted for a National Book Circle Critics Award in the US. His retrospective Goat’s Milk: New & Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 2015), includes work from four earlier collections, A Store of Candles (Oxford University Press, 1977), A Northern Spring (Secker & Warburg, 1986), The Ghost Train (Gallery Press, 1995) and Fireflies (Carcanet, 2009), together with new poems, and was shortlisted for the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Literary Prize. He was editor of The Honest Ulsterman from 1969 to 1989, and has also edited Poetry Ireland Review. In 1992 he received the Cultural Traditions Award, given in memory of John Hewitt, and in 2002 the Lawrence O'Shaughnessy Award for Poetry from the University of St Thomas at St Paul, Minnesota. Frank Ormsby served as the eighth Ireland Professor of Poetry from 2019 to 2022.
Frank Ormsby launched his new collection The Tumbling Paddy at two in-person events in Northern Ireland in June 2026, supported by Malachi O’Doherty. The first took place on 6 June 2026 at the Seamus Heaney Centre, Queen’s University Belfast, as part of the Belfast Book Festival. Frank spoke movingly about his experience of Parkinson's disease and read new work to an enthralled audience. Malachi O’Doherty wrote that this was one of the most special poetry events he had ever been to or chaired. The second launch was held at Seamus Heaney HomePlace, Bellaghy, on 18 June.
The Tumbling Paddy was also be launched online with Bloodaxe on 23 June 2026 - scroll down for details.
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A full-page interview with Frank Ormsby about his eighth collection The Tumbling Paddy was featured in the Belfast Telegraph on 5 June 2026 ahead of his Belfast Book Festival launch the following day.
Read online here.
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PAST EVENTS AND RECORDINGS
Tuesday 23 June 2026 - Online launch event with John Challis, Frank Ormsby and Lawrence Sail
Joint online launch event for new June 2026 titles by John Challis, Frank Ormsby and Lawrence Sail. All three poets celebrated the publication of their new books, with John Challis and Lawrence Sail by reading live from their books. Frank Ormsby draws on his experience of living with Parkinson's Disease in his recent work and is unable to take part, but has been able to make audio recordings to be played during this event with screen-shared poems from his book.
The post-reading discussion with the host, Bloodaxe editor Neil Astley, featured John Challis and Lawrence Sail along with Frank Ormsby's friend, the writer and broadcaster Malachi O'Doherty, who made the audio recordings.
This free Bloodaxe launch event was streamed on YouTube Live and is now available on this YouTube page: https://youtube.com/live/6OitDbheZ8A
INTERVIEW WITH FRANK ORMSBY
Ireland Cultural Centre, London, 2 May 2021, 2pm - then online
Frank Ormsby in conversation with Anne Morrison
A fifty-minute conversation between Anne Morrison and Frank Ormsby, Ireland Professor of Poetry. As part of this wide-ranging discussion, Frank read a few poems from his most recent books The Rain Barrel, The Darkness of Snow and Goat's Milk: New & Selected Poems.
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Poetry of The 'Troubles' Revisited
Lecture by Frank Ormsby, holder of the Ireland Chair of Poetry with welcome by Prof Iggy McGovern and introduction by Prof Nicholas Grene. The second of his lectures as Ireland Professor of Poetry. Recorded at Trinity College Dublin. Released online 4 March 2022.
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A feature review of Frank Ormsby's The Rain Barrel is in The Irish Times here.
Frank Ormsby recorded his poem 'The Butterfly House' from The Rain Barrel for The New Yorker. You can listen to Frank read the poem here.
In 2018 Frank Ormsby collaborated with singer/songwriter Anthony Toner on an album The Kiss of Light. The CD was launched by Frank, Anthony and the other two musicians involved at an event at Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris on 29 March 2018. Frank Ormsby, Anthony Toner and cellist Neil Martin gave a number of other events based around the CD. The album features recordings of Frank reading 11 of his own poems, with each reading followed by a short instrumental composed by Anthony Toner in response to the poems, played by Anthony on accoustic guitar, Linley Hamilton on trumpet and Neil Martin on 'cello. The poems are taken from Frank Ormsby's Goat's Milk: New & Selected Poems and The Darkness of Snow. Full details a clips from the CD are here.
Frank Ormsby was the Guest of Honour at the BBC Proms in the Park at Castle Coole, Nothern Ireland on 9 September 2017. His work was celebrated and two poems from Goat's Milk: New & Selected Poems were read by actor Adrian Dunbar accompanied by specially composed music by Graeme Stewart performed by the Ulster Orchestra and harpist Richard Allen.
[21 May 2026]
