Cathy Galvin's debut Ethnology: features & reviews
'...a book to return to, a book with real heft and stature.’ – Ian Pople, London Grip
Published by Bloodaxe Books in the UK and Ireland in February 2026, Cathy Galvin's first full-length book of poetry, Ethnology: a love song for Connemara, draws on the mystical cry for the dead of her Irish-speaking ancestors. Within an epic narrative she reclaims place, people and language, creating a bridge between our own times and a Connemara community on the margins of Europe. Drawing on classic forms within literary and oral traditions, Ethnology becomes a love song for Connemara, witness to vivid encounters: between the living and the dead and between the poets, folklorists and ethnologists who have written about the West of Ireland for their own agendas.
Cathy Galvin is a poet and a journalist, and has been a champion of other writers and writing, co-founding The Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award and founding and directing The Word Factory short story organisation. She has been nominated for a variety of awards including the Ilkley Poetry Prize and Listowel Poetry Prize and is the recipient of a Hawthornden Fellowship, Heinrich Böll (Achill Island) residency and an Arts Council England DYCP award. Her first full-length book of poetry, Ethnology: a love song for Connemara (Bloodaxe Books, February 2026), follows three pamphlet sequences of poetry, Black & Blue (Melos Press, 2014), Rough Translation (Melos Press, 2016) and Walking The Coventry Ring Road with Lady Godiva (Guillemot Press, 2019).
With roots in Coventry and Connemara, Cathy Galvin now lives near Bodmin Moor in Cornwall. She has events forthcoming across the UK and Ireland. She will be giving readings for the Irish communities in Nottingham (Five Leaves Bookshop, 9 March), Leicester (Emerald Centre, 10 March) and Coventry (Irish Society, 11 March), and will be in conversation with the Manchester Irish language group online on 19 March (she is learning Irish with the group).
For details of these and Cathy Galvin's forthcoming events in the UK and Ireland, see: https://www.bloodaxebooks.com/events?articleid=1591
BBC RADIO CORNWALL INTERVIEW WITH CATHY GALVIN
Upload with Daniel Pascoe, BBC Radio Cornwall & BBC Radio Devon, Thursday 19 February 2026, 6pm (repeated Saturday 21 February, 7pm, on BBC Radio Devon)
An interview with North Cornwall-based poet Cathy Galvin was broadcast on BBC Radio Cornwall and BBC Radio Devon on the Upload with Daniel Pascoe show. She was in conversation with Will Marshall about her first full-length poetry book Ethnology: a love song for Connemara.
The interview was divided into two parts. In the first section Cathy spoke about poetry, and about how she came to the artform later in life after working for many years as a journalist. In the second part she discussed her debut poetry book Ethnology.
Available on BBC Sounds until 21 March 2026, 8pm. Cathy Galvin features at 07:40 (intro & clip); 38:00 (main interview part 1); and 1:32:49 (main interview part 2).
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002r1fb
FORTHCOMING INTERVIEW WITH CATHY GALVIN ON IRISH RADIO
Arena, RTÉ Radio 1, forthcoming Thursday 5 March 2026, 7-8pm
Cathy Galvin will be interviewed live down the line on RTÉ Radio 1’s Arena on 5 March ahead of her Dublin launch later this month. She will be rdiscussing Ethnology: a love song for Connemara and reading poems from the book.
https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/arena/
An article by Cathy Galvin is forthcoming in The Tablet on 7 or 14 March 2026.
FORTHCOMING REVIEW IN THE IRISH TIMES
The Irish Times, forthcoming Saturday 7 March 2026
Cathy Galvin’s first full-length poetry book Ethnology: a love song for Connemara will be reviewed by Martina Evans in her poetry round-up in The Irish Times of 7 March.
The feature will appear in print and will be available online by subscription.
ONLINE REVIEW COVERAGE
London Grip, online 21 February 2026
An excellent review of Cathy Galvin’s first full-length poetry book Ethnology: a love song for Connemara went online in London Grip on 21 February 2026, the week of publication.
‘Ethnology: a love song for Connemara is a tightly focused book. It pursues its themes with a laser-like precision. But Galvin’s world never feels monolithic. For all its emphasis on loss of both people and place, there lies beneath that an abundant sense of life, its meaning and its worth. This is, as the cliché often suggests, a book to return to, a book with real heft and stature.’ – Ian Pople, London Grip
https://londongrip.co.uk/2026/02/london-grip-poetry-review-cathy-galvin/
The High Window, Spring 2026, online 24 February 2026
Cathy Galvin’s Ethnology: a love song for Connemara was well reviewed online in the Spring 2026 issue of The High Window.
‘…a collection that is rooted in the landscape and nuances of Máisean Island and its past inhabitants. Galvin also questions what home and belonging mean when family roots have left their point of origin.’ – Emma Lee, The High Window
https://thehighwindowpress.com/2026/02/24/the-high-window-reviews-spring-2026/#Cathy%20Galvin
ARTICLE BY CATHY GALVIN IN THE IRISH POST
The Irish Post, Saturday 14 February 2026
An article by Cathy Galvin was featured in The Irish Post, the UK’s newspaper for the Irish community, accompanied by colour photos of Cathy pictured at the ruined cottage in Ireland which is at the heart of her book. The article ran under the headline and standfirst ‘Walking with ghosts on Mason Island: Poet Cathy Galvin returns to a vanished island community off the coast of Connemara, listening to the voices that refuse to fall silent’.
'I would not survive for long as an islander. I don't know how to build or re-roof; how to weave or sow; how to live off the land or sea; how to build a currach or a coffin. What I can make is the shape of words and offer them back to my great-grandfather who, in an early census, was described in this way: 'Farmer, cannot read or write.' – Cathy Galvin, writing in The Irish Post
In print only.
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ONLINE LAUNCH
Tuesday 24 February 2026, online launch reading by Polly Clark, Cathy Galvin and Penelope Shuttle
Bloodaxe's joint online launch event for new February 2026 titles by Polly Clark, Cathy Galvin and Penelope Shuttle is now on YouTube. All three poets were celebrating the publication of their new books by reading live and discussing their work with the host, Bloodaxe editor Neil Astley.
This free Bloodaxe launch event was streamed on YouTube Live and is now available on this YouTube page: https://youtube.com/live/XA38CZZs9yE.
Excellent readings by all three poets, followed by a very lively discussion. Cathy Galvin reads second in each set.
[19 February 2026]
