Rita Ann’s prose carries all the warm immediacy, ready wit and punchy potency of her poetry. When she said something, you knew from what she said, that she was meticulous in her research, and you could believe it.”. It was beyond belief but you trusted Catherine Corless because she was so dignified. “Organisations like Galway Film Fleadh, Music for Galway, TULCA, and so on, are the ones that made Galway the capital of culture as well as individual artists. When I am coming back to Galway on the Dublin road I love the landscape surrounding it. A native of Ballybrit, Galway, Higgins was one of thirteen children in a working-class household. We have heard it all regarding the Church and yet we then heard about two boys finding a tank containing the remains of babies. Our Killer City – a fine mix of anger and wit. One of 13 children, she left school at 14, and was in her late 20s when she started writing poetry. One of 11 children, Higgins left school at 14 and first began to be interested in writing during a long stay in hospital in her 20s. The whole thing about Tuam went off the Richter scale in terms of the incredulity of it. Contact | I love Galway and that I am firmly rooted here; I’d have no desire to abandon it.”, Several of the book’s essays touch on Rita Ann’s interest in the Bible and the notion of her attending Bible study classes; I ask has she followed that up since writing the pieces. She began to write poetry in her twenties after being hospitalized with tuberculosis.Higgins’s frank, wry poems often look squarely at economic and gender-based inequalities. Several of the pieces in the book, both essays and poems reference the crisis in our health care system where patients are left on trolleys or access to medical care is denied or delayed. “I had been tuning in when the Minister of Health was supposed to be coming to Galway and then he cancelled, and then he was coming again and when he did finally get here it was just a promo thing. She went to Briarhill National School, and Sisters of Mercy Convent, Galway. “I think with that I might need someone to go with me. Place an Ad | This is not the first time that the work of Ms Higgins, which was described by one critic as "caustic, troublemaking poetry", has led to disagreements with family members and others. Her essays are a joy to read, often funny and always insightful, trenchant and thought-provoking. Our Killer City will be launched by poet Elaine Feeney in Charlie Byrne's Bookshop Middle Street Galway on Friday February 15 at 6.30pm. BY CHARLIE MCBRIDE  Galway Advertiser, Thu, Feb 07, 2019. The committee had, perhaps, been expecting a paean to the glories of Galway but instead it was a devastating critique in which Rita Ann exposes Galway’s many foibles. Over an afternoon coffee and scrumptious chocolate brownie (which the writer kindly treated the interviewer to! ) Lifestyle – A stint as Ireland’s ‘Pandemic Poet Laureate’ on RTÉ radio inspired the latest collection from poet Rita Ann Higgins, which offers a unique insight... Arts Week with Judy Murphy In another life, Galway poet and writer Rita Ann Higgins might have been a revolutionary. “It isn’t about criticism at all, it is not about knocking Galway 2020, it is about setting it up,” she asserts. For more see www.salmonpoetry.com. in the House Hotel, Rita Ann shared her thoughts on the topics explored over the course of the book. A new book from Rita Ann Higgins is always a cause for celebration and Friday February 15 sees the publication of Our Killer City, a scintillating and spiky compendium of essays and poems. 'Rita Ann Higgins means a unique line in human warmth; and a unique colour of humour and a unique clarity' - PAUL DURCAN RITA ANN HIGGINS was born in 1955 in Galway, where she still lives. Galway was jubilant after being awarded 2020 European City of Culture in 2016, but the organising committee got more than it bargained for when Rita Ann submitted the poem it had commissioned, which she titled 'Our Killer City'. Look where we are; there is a nurses’ strike and it is being spun as if they are the bad guys. “It was challenging at one level because of the deadline but on the other hand it made me do it,” she admits. She married in 1973 but following the birth of her second child in 1977, contracted tuberculosis, forcing her to spend an extended period in a sanatorium. “My antenna is out there anyhow for stuff that is going on locally and it was even more so when I was writing the column because I knew it would be published. "It didn’t do anything to assuage my worries that he was not going to do much about the situation in Galway and nothing really has changed up to now. I’d never been in a situation before where I had to meet deadlines. “I couldn’t ignore it,” Rita Ann asserts. 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She also lays aside her comic instincts at times as in 'The Long Tired Memory', her measured and thoughtful reading of Catherine Corless’s exposure of the Tuam babies story. Advertiser.ie | I am walking tomorrow in the bog with a friend of mine and the Bible study might be something I’d like to do with someone to go with and have some discussion. While there is a peppering of critical salvoes throughout 'Our Killer City', relating to Galway 2020, Rita Ann stresses she is not against the project per se. ... a scintillating and spiky compendium of essays and poems. “I was lucky to have met Catherine Corless and I remember her saying to me ‘I am killed with headaches’ and I introduced that into the piece where I say she is no saint because she gets migraines.