IN PICTURES: Derry schoolteacher launches new book

The talk afterwards among those in attendance was that this would be the first of many, so well-received was the collection.

Acting Principal Feargal Friel is the brains behind ‘The In-between’, which contains 43 poems inspired by the people and places Feargal has experienced during his time in Derry, Cork and Donegal, and also in the course of his school life at his beloved Hollybush Primary School in Culmore.

A capacity crowd enjoyed the banter between lifelong friends as fellow-author Brian McGilloway ‘grilled’ Feargal on his poetry, how it came about and his experiences of life in general.

The poet grew up in Derry, and spent all his school holidays in County Cork. He studied at Queen’s in Belfast where he read English and History. Since receiving a Postgraduate Certificate of Education at St. Mary’s College, Belfast in 1998, he has been teaching at Hollybush Primary School where he is presently Acting Principal. For the past 24 years he has been living in Inishowen and began writing poetry in 2016.

Describing how this collection came about, Feargal told Brian: “I have always had a love of language, and especially of the poetic form. My first poem was written to capture a very important experience I had with Eva and Tom (Feargal’s daughter and son) on a visit to Grianan in Donegal in 2016. That first poem, Wallstead, was the beginning of a journey in verse which has culminated in this anthology.”

Summing up at the close of proceedings in An Chultúrlann, Declan Grace, who wrote the foreword to the book, said “The In-between is Feargal’s first collection of poetry, with more to follow, as ‘the work is not yet finished!’(a line from poem, Early Signs).

‘The In-between’ is available for purchase at £8 or 10 euro from Little Acorns Bookstore, Foyle Books, Centra Muff, and Mac’s Newsagents, Buncrana.