New Sponsor for 2005 Bard of Armagh.

The Irish News is the major sponsor of the 2005 Bard of Armagh Festival of Humorous Verse which takes place next November in the City Hotel.

Anybody who hasn’t heard of the Bard of Armagh Festival by now is dead in some part of them that should be most alive. Anyone who hasn’t been at one of the Bardic nights of hilarity and revelry over the past twelve years has yet to add an ingredient to their lives that will make them expel all negativity that may have entered their heads.

If the Bard Festival had been false and not of the people, it would have died years ago. If the standard of writing and delivery had not developed as time went on, it would have withered and faded away. But the very opposite has happened. Is has grown and bloomed with the years in every way. It regenerates itself every November by its own power and excellence and becomes more and more rooted in the life of the people as a great natural inheritance.

Year after year the standard rises. Bards from all over know they have to keep perfecting this ancient art of versification or they will quickly fall away. Their subject matter is the same- the vagaries of life, love and death and the eccentricities of the human condition.

The Bard of Armagh night is an injection of gaiety, an anti-dour poultice, a shot in the ass of jubilation, a transfusion of merriment, a social enlightenment, a spiritual regeneration and last but not least the best night’s craic ever devised in this part of the world.

The Bard Festival sees humour as an antidote to the stresses of modern life. It realises there is much therapy in a long laugh and in laugh after laugh, reflecting society through a not-so-serious mirror and for once get us laughing at ourselves. The humour is always intimate and deep and those who go once get addicted. That’s why the tickets go as quickly as for a U2 concert.

And this year in deference to the growing number of patrons from County Monaghan, we are staging the Launch of Bard of Armagh 2005 in Castleblayney and look forward to meeting enthusiasts from all over at this event in August. Then it’s all set for the big annual November extravaganza in the City Hotel in Armagh as versifiers spend the late summer and autumn polishing their latest creation and practising their recitation skills.

The big news this year is the Irish News section. The famous morning newspaper are our main sponsors in 2005 and this will involve a special Irish News verse section just as the Electricity section of past years which was such a success and turned up new bards.

All in all, the committee are gearing up for another gathering of the versifiers of the country and beyond, and with the sponsorship of the Irish News and the backing of the City Council, are confident of staging the Mother of all Bard festivals.