Nottingham’s Irish poet laureate
releases new anthology of work
 A much-acclaimed
poet — considered by many as the ‘Nottingham-Irish’
Poet Laureate — has recently released a new poetry anthology.
A Step in the Road is Michael Hannon’s take on the Irish culture
in Britain. The last sentence of the introduction reveals how important
the written word has been in Hannon’s life to cope with the emigrant
experience.
He said: “Ever since my schooldays the written word has been part
of my life and I often ask myself — what would life be like without
it?”
Michael’s poems are nostalgic in nature, with one critic describing
him as “the quintessential Irish exile yearning for the Ireland
he once knew and will always remember.”
But his poetry also comments on the changing times surrounding someone
who lived through the harsh reality of poverty-stricken Ireland and post-war
northern England. One poem The Baseball Cap alludes to a gap between the
generations, from the perspective of a man who had no option but to work
in Nottingham’s famous Player’s cigarette factory despite
an agricultural background.
The collection takes us into his beginnings in Dunmore in the 1940s, with
a ‘talking movie’ of the causes and background of his migration
in 1946. One poem Tuam Sugar Factory reflects on the dying industry of
Sugar in Tuam through the metaphor of his father’s death.
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