Niamh McNally is on the right track when it comes to poetry. The 29-year-old west Belfast native has just been named Translink’s poet-in-residence at the new flagship £340m Grand Central Station. Having completed a similar stint at the £17m York Street transport hub, it’s a role that Niamh’s familiar with – and one with rhyme and reason.
Niamh is particularly excited about the prospect of taking cross-community poetry workshops for around 300 children, ranging from Primary 7 to A Level, from schools in the local area. Part of her remit is to extol the virtues of public transport, as well to inspire children and young people to write poetry.
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“Poetry is exciting, it’s current, it’s around us all the time. I’ll write a piece of public poetry to be displayed in the station during the residency but I’m also taking creative writing workshops in Grand Central, based on journeys and connections and trains, buses and adventures,” she said.
“I’m also writing a blog on different journeys that I take around Northern Ireland.”
Being a poet-in-residence is not a nine to five job, nor is it salaried. That’s why Niamh is also working on other projects, including coordinating a festival.
“It’s a freelance contract that comes with a fee. That’s why I also do other things. I don’t drive so I’m a big fan of buses and trains,” she said.
Niamh said she appreciates Translink’s decision to fund the arts: “It’s a unique thing for a corporation to put money into the arts, but it makes them more personal,” she added.
As York Street’s poet-in-residence, Niamh spearheaded Translink’s Poetry in Motion campaign, a collaboration between the public transport provider and Ulster University.
The initiative included a poetry competition, encouraging members of the public to have a go at creative writing. But, thanks to Niamh’s suggestion, Translink also encouraged poets to travel around Northern Ireland, creating poems based on their journeys.
Those poems form the basis of a new anthology called Poetry in Motion, which will be launched on February 19 in Grand Central and available, free, for everyone to enjoy.
“It’s a compilation of poems from our poets in motion, and the general public; we had over 100 entries. Translink collaborated with Ulster University and Dr Frank Ferguson, Research Director for English Language and Literature spearheaded the project for the university,” Niamh said.
“Renowned Strabane poet Maureen Boyd has also written two bespoke poems for the publication, making it an exciting mixture of new and established voices.”
Niamh also revealed how she has a signed copy of 2018 Man Booker Prize-winning Milkman by Belfast author Anna Burns.
“I was reading in a bar when I got chatting to the barman who said his sister-in-law ‘writes’. I asked what, and he replied, ’just this book that won a big award’. As he continued talking, I realised who the author in question was. The following month he sent me a message to say Anna had left me a signed copy behind the bar.”
So how does someone become a poet in the first place?
“As part of my English and Film Studies degree at Ulster University in Coleraine, I spent a year in Poland, where I studied poetry,” Niamh said. “Then I came back, did a Masters in English and decided to pursue poetry as a career.”
Covid proved to be a turning point for Niamh, following a commission from Bushmills Distillery: “They were releasing signature casks called ‘The Causeway Collection’ and I wrote a poem called ‘If Stone Could Speak’ to mark the occasion.”
Other commissions followed, including a film on the climate crisis for the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, as well as an assignment on the pandemic from Business in the Community.
That was in tandem with her job at Let’s Go Hydro, which Niamh accepted after Covid put paid to the “dream job” she had secured at the Grand Opera House prior to the pandemic. Last January, however, Niamh left employment and went freelance, with the blessing of her dad, a hospital porter, and her auxiliary nurse mum.
“It was a commission called Shared Island Symphony that gave me the courage to step away from my day job,” said Niamh, who’s younger sister Tierna (25) is an actress.
Niamh, who has been published in literary magazines including The Galway Review, The Tulsa Review, Tiur na Og and Capsule Stories, would like to feature in the Poetry Ireland or Banshee Press or The Stinging Fly.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, her other future aspirations aren’t far from where she is now: “My dream job is to be a full-time poet and publish my first collection. And the ultimate goal is to be sustainable as a writer. I currently have around 30 poems, but I still have more work to do.”
One of Niamh’s creations stretches along 150 feet of ceiling above pedestrians’ heads of the Whitla Street/Nelson Street pedestrian underpass. Indeed, her words sit alongside graffiti-style paintings from Seedhead Arts thanks to Translink’s renovation project in north Belfast.
Niamh added: “Poetry is on the rise, especially in Northern Ireland. It’s in more spaces and there are several art movements. It’s all about keeping it accessible.”
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