MONAGHAN PAIR FOR FINAL

Two county Monaghan reciters,  Dermot McEnally from Monaghan town, and Joan Rooney from Donaghmoyne are rehearsing their lines for the much awaited finals of the Bard of Armagh Festival of Humorous Verse.  The extravaganza, now in it’s eighteenth year takes place in the Armagh city Hotel on Friday 18 November.

It’s strange that despite numerous entries from south of the border each year, the winners to date hail from Counties Armagh, Tyrone, Derry, Antrim, Down and Fermanagh.  Dermot McEnally hopes to correct things this year.  This is his third time in the finals and he was quite impressive in 05 with the Tale of Seymour Brown and in 07 with The Last Bard Standing.  He feels that this year’s ode ‘Rambo’s Revenge’ is his best ode yet and he will have everything fine tuned for the finals. 

The bard winners have been all males too and this year Joan Rooney is confident that it will be a female first this time.  Joan was a close runner up in 09 with ‘Tam the Thread’.  Her entry this year, ‘Willie Wright’ is a real tongue twister and is sure to activate the 1000 strong audience into explosive laughter. There are fourteen Bards in the frame including four newcomers and a number of the old reliables.  The event is a complete sellout once again proving beyond a doubt that people don’t need celebrities for a night’s entertainment and that an evening of bardic revelry provided by local people is superior to the shallow, contrived and manufactured stuff that abounds at the minute.