The fifth issue of Ragaire is ready to go!

Thanks to the generous support of the Arts Council of Ireland and Galway City Council Arts office, the eagerly awaited new edition is a diverse and engaging collection of both Irish and international writers. It is another issue that creates and sustains its own particular world, an Ireland and wider world full of precious everyday moments; the pull of memories, the unmapped roads of the human heart.

Issue 5 includes new short stories from Tara Doonan, Clare O’Malley, Barbara Dunne and Christopher Kestell and new poetry from Emily Cullen, Liam Boyle, Theodore Deppe and Sean Rowen among others.

“I’m very pleased with it,” says editor Cormac Culkeen. “We have worked very hard to create a clear identity for each issue, and this one doesn’t disappoint. Each issue has been significantly different, yet there is a common thread that we try to highlight with each one. There are stories of emotional upheaval and strange happenings that test the present and future. There are poems that treasure place, those living and dead and our daily tasks of living.  I can’t wait to launch it, and I can’t wait for people to read it.”

Editor Aileen McCarthy is in full agreement: “Ragaire continues to champion bold, distinctive writing that surprises, challenges and opens up new ways of seeing the world. Issue 5 brings together a remarkable range of voices and conversations and we’re proud to finally share it with our readers.”

Editor Lucy Bleeker is thrilled with what Issue 5 has to offer; “Issue 5 saw our largest number of submissions to date, resulting in an eclectic gathering of new work from near and far. We are grateful to continue to share new writing with all of our readers.”

Issue 5 will be launched by Galway poet Nithy Kasa. Nithy was born in Kimpese, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and was raised in its capital, Kinshasa and in Galway. Nithy’s debut collection entitled Palm-Wine Tapper and the Boy at Jericho was published in 2022 by Doire Press. Her second collection, How to Make Love to a Colonised Body was published in April of this year, also by Doire Press.

Issue 5 of Ragaire will be launched on Friday, May 22^nd, at 6.30pm in the Portershed, Market Street Galway. Tickets for the launch can be booked through www.ragairemagazine.com.  

Keep an eye out for updates on www.ragairemagazine.com.